Sputnik News:
The US military is preparing to test a game-changing artillery round within the next 12 months, according to a January 26 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The hyper-velocity projectile (HVP) promises to significantly augment the way the US military does business. The round fires at speeds around 5,600 miles per hour and can be used for missile defense at a much lower cost than the PAC-3 interceptors or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries.
The round could also be unleashed by the US Army’s howitzer cannons or from the decks of US Navy destroyers, Task and Purpose noted Thursday. Each HVP costs about $86,000, which may seem expensive until this figure is compared with the Patriot missiles that require specialized launchers and run $3 million each and THAAD batteries that cost in excess of $800 million a pop.
