Report: US Kept Missile Test Quiet to Avoid Elevating Tensions With Russia

The U.S. military recently conducted a successful hypersonic missile test and managed to keep the results private for two weeks, as a means of not heightening tensions with Russia, according to a report in The Hill.

In the report, which cited a defense official via CNN, the U.S. military's exercise with a hypersonic air-breathing weapon concept (HAWC) nearly synced up with President Joe Biden's mid-March trip to Europe.

The president met with NATO allies overseas then, and conducted talks with Ukraine's foreign minister and defense minister in Poland. Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine has been an ongoing occurrence since Feb. 24.

According to a statement from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. military — in conjunction with Lockheed Martin and the United States Air Force — launched the missile from a B-52 bomber off the West Coast on March 19, and the missile achieved a Mach 5 level, or roughly five times the speed of sound.

The missile reached a peak altitude of more than 65,000 feet and "flew for more than 300 nautical miles," according to DARPA.

The HAWC flight test reportedly took place days after Russian forces used a hypersonic missile in Ukraine.

The March 19 exercise was not the first time the United States had kept certain projects under wraps.

According to reports, earlier in March, the U.S. military postponed and ultimately canceled a flight test involving an intercontinental ballistic missile (Minuteman III).

Back in September, DARPA also carried out a successful test flight of a Raytheon-built missile with a Northrop Grumman-made engine.

RELATED STORIES:

• Top General: War in Ukraine Likely to Last 'Years'
• Sen. Grassley Says Putin Is the 'Butcher of Bucha'