The Defense Department is on the cusp of seizing the lead in maneuvering hypersonic technology development from China and Russia and is poised next year to ramp up flight tests to as many 40 over the next four years, according to a senior Pentagon official. Mark Lewis, director of defense research and engineering for modernization, also said the Defense Department will eventually winnow the current portfolio of hypersonic weapon technologies into a smaller number of programs of record. "I do believe we are now on a path to not only field weapons successfully but to seize the lead in this technology area," Lewis said during remarks at an online event hosted by Defense One. This assessment comes more than two years after then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva declared, "We have lost our technical advantage in hypersonics." "The Russians and the Chinese moved out pretty smartly on hypersonics," Selva told reporters on Jan. 20,2018. "China has made it a national program, so China's willing to spend tens to up to hundreds of billions to solve the problems of hypersonic flight, hypersonic target designation and then, ultimately, engagement." While the Pentagon conducted a major flight test of an intermediate-range, boost-glide hypersonic weapon in March for an Army and Navy program, other U.S. military projects have conducted intensive ground testing in recent years, Lewis said.
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