OREANDA-NEWS. US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper argues that Washington is leading more innovative developments in the field of hypersonic weapons than Russia and China. He made a statement on Wednesday at a hearing in the Senate Committee on Armed Forces.

“Hypersonic weapons are one of our top priorities”, he said. "We are carrying out innovative developments, and I will tell you that they are more innovative than what you can see from China or Russia, I can assure you of this", the Pentagon chief said.

The United States has not yet created its own hypersonic weapons. In recent months, Washington has repeatedly stressed that the country has lagged behind Russia and China in this area. Esper himself on December 7, 2019 admitted that the United States was "in the role of catching up". He announced the doubling of funding for the development of land, air and sea-based hypersonic munitions in 2020. According to American media, nine projects are being implemented in the interests of the military. For the current year flight tests of four prototypes are scheduled.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the appearance of hypersonic weapons in Moscow made the huge expenditures of other countries to contain Russia senseless.