WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), U.S. Senator Angus King, Chair of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, questioned Dr. Aprille J. Ericsson, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology, and Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt, nominee for Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, about the need for “urgency” in research and development of American hypersonic missile capabilities to deter adversaries like China and Russia.  Russia recently used hypersonics to attack Ukraine’s two largest cities, and China is conducting research on accelerating their hypersonic weapons program.

In his exchange with Dr. Ericsson, Senator King suggests that catching up on hypersonics research and development should be a “hair on fire urgent priority” as we continue to compete with China.

“Dr. Ericsson, hypersonics and directed energy. We got a lot of catch up to do. This should be a hair on fire urgent priority. Do you agree?” Senator King asked.

Dr. Ericsson responded, “Senator, yes, I do. I'm always excited when I hear about hypersonics and I'm hoping that maybe some of the technology we're developing at NASA, particularly with the X-59, if there's ways that we can infuse that and bring together the two different agencies-- the Department of Defense and our agency-- to maybe further that technology.”

Senator King followed up, “Well, the other piece is defense against hypersonics. That's another place where we've fallen down. Chinese hypersonic advantage renders a lot of our forward deployment strategy in the Pacific ineffective if we don't have a defense against their hypersonic missiles. I hope defense against hypersonics is a high priority as well.”

“Yes, sir, I will, definitely. It's part of my portfolio to make sure we transition that critical technology early. And so, I will work across the departments to help us do that,” Dr. Ericsson replied.

“I'd like to see urgency here,” King concluded.

King then asked Dr. Schmidt about his appetite to follow the private sector approach of “fail fast, learn” to speed up the research and development process of deterrents like hypersonic missiles.

Senator King asked, “Dr. Schmidt, as far as testing is concerned, a lot of testimony we've had with regard to the Chinese approach to these things, like hypersonics, is they're not afraid to fail. SpaceX has that same philosophy. They learn from failure. We seem to have this idea that every test has to be successful. I hope that you'll think about and look at the way the Chinese conduct their R&D, which involves testing, testing, testing, failing, failing, failing, and then getting it right, rather than a focus entirely on every test, has to work. Do you see my point?

Senator King, having worked in commercial software technology for decades, the fail fast, learn fast model is something that I'm very deeply aware of and appreciate. Naturally, we also have to balance that with making sure we don't harm things when we test. But that's where particular technology advances in high fidelity synthetic environments and modeling and simulation environments, where we can fail repeatedly and learn from our lessons without necessarily putting people in harm's way,” Dr. Schmidt replied.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King is recognized as an authoritative voice on national security and foreign policy issues. As the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces – which oversees the United States’ nuclear arsenal and posture – Senator King has been a steady voice on the need to address the growing nuclear capacity of our adversaries. Senator King recently expressed concern about the emerging threats of Russia and China’s development of “nightmare weapon” hypersonic missiles, which he has described as “strategic game-changers.”

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