8 April 2025, 07:51

By William Freer

The Ministry of Defence announced that British scientists recently completed a ‘major hypersonic propulsion test’ in the United States.

Last May the Ministry of Defence (MOD) signed a new framework, with up to £1 billion of funding over seven years to develop a sovereign hypersonic strike capability by 2030. The recent test highlights two things: firstly the need to invest more in defence to avoid falling behind on military technology and secondly on the benefits and limits of ‘sovereign’ capability.

A number of the United Kingdom’s key allies and adversaries have introduced hypersonic weapons programmes, with some weapons already in service. The US, the People’s Republic of China, and Russia are those with the most mature programmes – although........

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