Pentagon delayed hypersonic test planned before Biden-Putin meet to avoid tensions: Report

The White House had advised the Pentagon to delay the long-scheduled hypersonic missile test, just less than a week before US President Joe Biden met with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in June, to avoid tensions with Moscow. Politico reported citing defence and congressional officials that a high-level White House staffer had contacted the Department of Defence or Pentagon to request if the test can be postponed. 

At the time, Biden was readying to have crucial discussions with Putin and reportedly, the White House officials worried if launching the provocative weapon right before the summit could send a wrong signal to Moscow amid soaring US-Russia tensions, or even destroy the meeting entirely. Even the defence official noted that the Russians likewise “didn’t do [provocative] things in advance of that summit. This is not unusual at all for the sake of table-setting.”

The sources spoke to the media outlet on the condition of anonymity. However, the White House spokesperson has said that the report is “not accurate” and the Pentagon declined to comment on the same. It still remains unclear who in the White House made the request or which Pentagon official received it. It is pertinent to note that just a month after the Biden-Putin summit in June, on 19 July, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that it tested a hypersonic missile. Since then, Moscow has launched a series of weapons tests.

US tests hypersonic weapon component prototypes

United States Navy and Army said it “successfully” tested hypersonic weapon component prototypes on Wednesday, 20 October that will further be used to inform the development of new weapons. In a statement, US Indo-Pacific Command (PACOM) on Thursday said that the flight campaign was executed from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and the test demonstrated “advanced hypersonic technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems in a realistic operating environment”.

However, on the contrary, the US Department of Defence or Pentagon spokesperson told news agency Sputnik that the test related to the development of its hypersonic weapon was "unsuccessful" after a missile booster failed to work. 

The news agency quoted the spokesperson as saying, “On Oct. 21, the Department of Defense conducted a data collection experiment from the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska, Kodiak, AK [Alaska], to inform the department’s hypersonic technology development” adding that “The test did not occur as planned due to a failure of the booster stack.”

(IMAGE: AP)