Washington, London, and Canberra have announced a new effort to advance the testing and deployment of hypersonic missiles and related technologies under the trilateral AUKUS security partnership. The initiative, part of the broader technology-sharing agreement between the US, UK, and Australia, aims to accelerate progress in the high-stakes field of hypersonic weaponry.
The announcement was made on Monday through simultaneous statements from the Pentagon, the UK Ministry of Defence, and Australia’s Department of Defence. The new project, named the Hypersonic Flight Test and Experimentation (HyFliTE) Project Arrangement (PA), falls under Pillar II of the AUKUS agreement, which involves the sharing of critical defense technologies. The program will see up to six joint test launches by 2028, backed by a $252 million funding pool.
Maj. Pete Nguyen, a Pentagon spokesperson, emphasized that the HyFliTE initiative seeks to combine the resources of the three countries to speed up testing and enhance the development of hypersonic technologies. “This series of trilateral tests will accelerate the advancement of hypersonic concepts and critical enabling technologies,” said Heidi Shyu, the US Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
The move is seen as a response to the growing competition in hypersonic weapons development, particularly from Russia and China. Both nations have made significant strides, with Russia fielding advanced hypersonic systems like the Kh-47 Kinzhal and the Avangard glide vehicle, which can travel at speeds 25 times the speed of sound. China has also deployed the DF-ZF glide vehicle. Last month, Iran claimed to have used hypersonic missiles in a military strike against Israel, further escalating global concerns over the technology’s potential military applications.
Despite these advances from adversaries, the US has been slower to deploy hypersonic weapons, having faced setbacks in its testing programs since its first successful test in 2017. The UK plans to deploy its first hypersonic cruise missile by 2030, while Australia has been collaborating with the US on hypersonic technology for over 15 years.
The new AUKUS initiative is expected to bolster defense capabilities, with more than 90 suppliers from the three nations and their European Union allies contributing to the effort. The commercial potential of the project is estimated at up to £1 billion ($1.27 billion), which UK Defence Secretary John Healey described as a “landmark arrangement” that would help the trio stay “ahead of our adversaries on the battlefield.”
Australia’s Defence Department hailed the project as a significant milestone in defense collaboration, promising to accelerate the development of hypersonic technologies. However, specific details on the technologies to be tested remain under wraps for now.
