The US Defense Department announced Friday it has successfully tested an unarmed hypersonic missile, a weapon that could potentially overwhelm an adversary's defense systems.
The Pentagon said a test missile flew at hypersonic speeds -- more than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5 -- to a designated impact point.
"Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability," said Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe in a statement.