Darryl Davis, Boeing’s head of advanced precision engagement and mobility systems, said today at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington that of all the options to get a long range strike capability “on the ramp” by 2018, a hypersonic platform is the “least achievable.” Davis told reporters that while hypersonic missiles might be possible within the Air Force’s timetable, for a full-size aircraft, the “technologies are not mature enough” to enter a development program in time to meet the deadline. Boeing is involved in two hypersonic ongoing missile demonstrations—HyFly and X-51. It will take another two years to judge when a low-risk, full-size hypersonic aircraft will be possible, Davis said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…