Under Donald Trump, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a contract to develop research in order to defend against hypersonic missiles. DARPA awarded a $13million (£9.9million) contract to Northrop Grumman to work on the development of its Glide Breaker programme.
The programme was described as being able to “develop and demonstrate technologies to enable defence against hypersonic systems”.
The Defence Department added: “This contract provides for the research, development and demonstration of a technology that is critical for enabling an advanced interceptor capable of engaging manoeuvring hypersonic threats in the upper atmosphere.”
The US, Russia and China have all rushed to develop the hypersonic missile which can travel faster than the speed of sound.
However, Russia has continued to lead the race on the weapon and have apparently upgraded their surface-to-air missiles.
Valery Slugin, chief designer for air defence systems at the state-run Rostec’s Shipunov Design Bureau of Instrument-Making told Tass, the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile and gun system received a new hypersonic upgrade.
He said: “There are two missiles that fight the entire range of targets.
“One is standard while the other has been developed recently and is hypersonic: it can develop a speed of Mach 5 and more.”
Such is the capability of the weapon that Russian sources have declared it is capable of defending against missiles and aircraft.
This comes after Putin boasted about Russia’s weapons arsenal.
In his annual speech this month, the Russian President declared his country no longer needed to “catch up” to anyone in terms of its nuclear capability.
“Our steps to improve our defence capability were done in a timely manner and I would like to emphasise that for the first time in the history of missile weapons, including the Soviet period, we are not trying to catch up with everyone.
“It’s the other way around, the other leading powers are yet to create the weapons that Russia already has.”
As well as boasting of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, Mr Putin has also passed a raft of parliamentary legislation.
Under the new legislation, the Russian leader will become the country’s new Supreme Ruler when he stands down as President.
The change is part of several alterations to the Russian constitution put forward by members of a government commission.
The commission was set up by Mr Putin himself as he wanted to change basic law in Russia.
Mr Putin’s tenure expires in 2024 but it is believed his constitutional changes will not cement his power but also allow him to stay on beyond his term.
Commenting on the decision, however, the Kremlin merely described the possible changes as a “new initiative”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Right now all this is at the discussion stage.
“President Putin has no view on this.”