Did you know that Eagle Farm is now the home of a new Australian Hypersonic Research Precinct, where defence experts will study the technology and conduct flight tests of hypersonic weapons and vehicles?
With a 60-personnel under its wing, the world-class hypersonic precinct in Eagle Farm was purposely-built for $14 million to improve and innovate the science and technology of the Australian Defence.
“It’s a complex technological challenge to build vehicles capable of flying at five times the speed of sound, that skim the stratosphere, to target any location on the planet,” Minister for Defence the Hon Peter Dutton MP said.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton opening the Australian Hypersonic Research Precinct where he says teams are working on vehicles that can travel 5x the speed of sound and target “anywhere on the planet”. pic.twitter.com/BNva2ZNOg6
— Josh Bavas (@JoshBavas) January 25, 2022
“The technology that is developed here will help us to better defend against the malign use of this technology and give us the ability to strike any potential adversaries from a distance and deter aggression against Australia’s national interests.
“It enables Defence researchers to develop and characterise sovereign hypersonic technologies and generate ‘true’ hypersonic flight conditions at large scale in a classified laboratory.”
It comes as Australia and the United States signed an agreement in December 2020 to develop and test hypersonic cruise missile prototypes. Hypersonic technology can exceed the speed of sound by five times or at 6,200 kilometres per hour. Hypersonic drones and weapons, on the other hand, are shaped to manoeuvre and evade radar detection.
Whilst the opening of the Eagle Farm research facility is a step in the right direction, Australia is challenged to develop the high-technology as China and Russia have been taking the lead in their capabilities to deploy hypersonic weapons.