Mark Lewis, executive director at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute, said he believes air systems designed to fly at hypersonic speed are crucial for U.S. military applications as the country’s peer competitors are investing heavily in such technology, CNBC reported Wednesday.
“We don’t want to just match them missile for missile, but introduce new capabilities of transportation capabilities, sensor capabilities. And I’m seeing that play out,” Lewis was quoted as saying by the business news channel.
The former Department of Defense official also thinks that lawmakers should look at the government’s hypersonic research and development efforts as a bipartisan matter.
A $770 billion defense policy bill signed by President Joe Biden in December supports national security programs related to hypersonic weapons and other disruptive technology platforms.