A hypersonic missile weapon undergoing testing by the U.S. military was blown up just seconds after launch at a test site in Alaska after controllers identified problems with it, the Pentagon says.
The missile, meant to hit a target anywhere on the globe within just hours by attaining a speed of at least 3,600 miles per hour, fell back to earth after it and its multi-stage launch booster was exploded, military officials said.
"The test was terminated near the launch pad shortly after lift-off to ensure public safety," the Department of Defense said in a release about the Monday morning incident. "There were no injuries to any personnel."
The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is being developed by the Sandia National Laboratory and the U.S. Army under the Pentagon's Conventional Prompt Global Strike program.
The launch was conducted by the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command.
It had previously successfully launched the hypersonic craft from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii in 2011.
In that test it traveled 2,500 miles from Hawaii to an Army test site in the Marshall Islands in just 30 minutes.
Although the military released no details on the failed launch, witnesses said shortly after liftoff from the Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage, the rocket booster carrying the weapon nosed over and headed toward the ground before exploding.
"I think it was about a minute or so before the roar of the takeoff made it to us followed shortly after by the sound of the explosion," Scott Wight of Kodiak told Space.com. "I didn't notice any shock wave although I've heard others say they felt something."
Pentagon officials would only confirm that the explosion was intentional and initiated by controllers.
"We had to terminate," Defense Department spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said. "The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down in the range complex."
Program officials will conduct an intensive investigation into the flight anomaly that caused the abort, she said.
Intended to research ultra-fast weapons, the Prompt Global Strike program was begun after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks to investigate weapons that could be used against targets anywhere in the world that might represent a time-sensitive threat to large groups of people.
Flight at five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5, is generally defined as hypersonic.
In June, Miltec Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., received a $44 million contract from the Pentagon for continued R&D on the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, work likely to be conducted through 2019.
