Excerpt
The U.S. military is pouring resources into the superfast weapons but has struggled to develop them. China and Russia are far ahead. …the weapons can attack with extreme speed, be launched from great distances and evade most air defenses. They can carry conventional explosives or nuclear warheads. China and Russia have them ready to use. The U.S. doesn’t….For more than 60 years, the U.S. has invested billions of dollars in dozens of programs to develop its own version of the technology. Those efforts have either ended in failure or been canceled before having a chance to succeed. Washington, having spent recent decades focusing on fights with terrorists and insurgencies, is once again pouring resources into hypersonics.