Congress will soon vote on a defense policy bill that requires the U.S. military to plan for an "early operational" variant of a hypersonic strike weapon by 2022, setting a new statutory expectation for the Conventional Prompt Strike technology development effort. The conference version of the House and Senate Armed Services committees' fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill adopts the position advanced by the House requiring the defense secretary and Joint Chiefs chairman to "plan to reach an early operational...
