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Ukraine war is backdrop in US push for hypersonic weapons

FILE - The Lyndon B. Johnson travels down the Kennebec River on its way to sea, in this Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, file photo, in Phippsburg, Maine. The Navy's largest and most expensive destroyers were built around a new gun system that could rapidly fire GPS-guided projectiles more than 50 miles, paving the way for the Marines to storm ashore. But those weapons, rendered useless without ammo, are going to be removed without ever firing a single shot as the Navy rushes to replace them with hypersonic weapons. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, files)

FILE - This handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) launching from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, in Kauai, Hawaii, March 19, 2020, during a Department of Defense flight experiment. The department is working in collaboration with industry and academia to field hypersonic war-fighting capabilities. (Luke Lamborn/U.S. Navy via AP)

Ukraine war is backdrop in US push for hypersonic weapons