Lockheed hypersonic missile test marred by in-flight data loss

THE SECOND TEST flight of Lockheed Martin's hypersonic missile prototype was marred by the weapon's failure to transmit in-flight performance data, two people familiar with the results said, a setback for US efforts to catch up with China and Russia in a key weapons capability.

- TONY CAPACCIO

The transmission failure and loss of data in the March 13 exercise wasn't reported in a statement issued by the US Air Force on March 24 that said the test "met several of the objectives and team engineers and testers are collecting data for further analysis." After being released from a B52H bomber off the southern coast of California, the warhead successfully separated from its rocket booster and proceeded into flight.

After that, however, the data link transmitting in-flight performance information failed, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information.