A top-secret weapon being developed by the US military was destroyed four seconds after its launch from a test range in Alaska early on Monday after controllers detected a problem with the system, the Pentagon said.
The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is part of a program to create a missile that will destroy targets anywhere on Earth within hours – traveling at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles-an-hour or Mach 5.
The mission was aborted to ensure public safety, and no one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 4 am EDT at the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, said Maureen Schumann, a spokeswoman for the U.S.
‘We had to terminate,’ Schumann said. ‘The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down in the range complex,’ she added.
The incident caused an undetermined amount of damage to the launch facility 25 miles from the city of Kodiak, Schumann said.
Officials said that the weapon system was not carrying a warhead when it was aborted.
The rocket carrying the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon was terminated near a pad of the Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island shortly after liftoff, spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said.
After an anomaly was detected, testers made the decision to destroy the rocket to ensure public safety, Schumann said.
“It came back down on the range complex,” she said. “Fortunately, no people on the ground were injured. There was damage, but I’m not sure of the extent of it at this time.”
The launch complex is about 25 miles from the city of Kodiak.
Witnesses watched the rocket lift off at 12:25 am, quickly head nose-down and explode, KMXT radio reported.
STRIKE ANYWHERE ON EARTH WITHIN HOURS: RACE TO CREATE WORLD’S MOST LETHAL WEAPON
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is being developed as a joint project between the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Army Forces Strategic Command to form the Pentagon’s Prompt Global Strike initiative.
The Defense Department wants a weapon that can strike targets anywhere in the world within hours using a conventionally armed missile traveling at Mach 5 or 3,500 miles an hour.
The missile would be used to hit terrorist targets identified on satellites thousands of miles away or weapons of mass destruction being moved in open ground that only have a small window within which to strike.
The disastrous abort of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon in Alasak follows a failed test by the Chinese military of a similar system.
