Profit Faster Than the Speed of Sound

As we enter into a new era of warfare, certain technologies stand out as key winners. I’m talking about things like drones and other unmanned platforms, AI software, cloud and edge computing, and even space systems. 

However, hypersonic weapons are one of the less obvious war-fighting investment opportunities. 

Hypersonic simply means traveling faster than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5. Of course, in many cases, hypersonic weapons travel even faster than that, even as high as Mach 20. 

The easiest and most traditional application of this technology is in a standard cruise missile. These missiles fire in a straight line from a standard launcher, but their incredible speed makes them difficult, if not impossible, to intercept with traditional defenses. 

Russia and China both have these weapons in their arsenal.

Russia deployed its version, called Kinzhal, in 2017. And on March 19, 2022, Russia became the first belligerent to use hypersonic weapons in combat when it sent a Kinzhal missile screaming into a Ukrainian ammunition depot.

The country followed that up with another attack in May — this time deploying three Kinzhal missiles from a bomber that laid waste to civilian targets (including a hotel and shopping mall) in the port city of Odessa.

Russia has also deployed the Zircon, a sea-launched hypersonic cruise missile.

China, meanwhile, deployed the Dongfeng-17 (DF-17), a road-mobile hypersonic boost-glide system, in 2020. These could be used against Taiwan in a potential invasion or against the U.S. Pacific fleet should it try to intervene. 

That’s scary enough, but it gets worse. Because a second hypersonic threat is posed by a new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. These are the types of missiles that are stored in underground silos. They fire up into the outer reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere and then crash down onto their targets, potentially dispersing multiple warheads.

Again, that alone is difficult to defend against, but the fact that traditional ICBMs travel on a predictable trajectory — in an arc or a parabola — at least gives you a chance.

The hypersonic versions are different, though. They travel on something called a glide vehicle. 

A glide vehicle is launched into low Earth orbit by rockets almost identical to ones that carry satellites and astronauts. It then deploys, or decouples from the rocket, reenters the Earth’s atmosphere, leaves again, coasts for a while, and finally reenters once more before firing down at its intended target.

This is called “boost glide” or “skip glide,” and its unpredictable flight path and the uncanny speed of the munition make it almost impossible to intercept.

These are the weapons that keep our military brass up at night. And again, Russia and China already have them.

Russia’s version of this weapon is called “Avangard.” 

First introduced in 2018, it launches from an ICBM and is capable of hitting Mach 20.

China’s hypersonic glide vehicle is known as DF-ZF, and it officially became operational in 2019. 

However, China is also continuing to advance the technology, having conducted two hypersonic tests last year that left Pentagon officials “stunned.”

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, even called it a “Sputnik moment.”

These tests were something new. They used a “fractional orbital bombardment” system to propel a glide vehicle around the Earth for the first time, circling the entire globe before crashing down just two dozen miles from its intended target.

This is the kind of stuff that has confounded even our best scientists.

And the sum of these threats is why the Department of Defense and Congress are pouring money into hypersonic development projects in a desperate bid to close the gap. 

Consider this…

Back in 2017, the Pentagon spent a scant $250 million on hypersonic weapons projects. By 2022, that figure had surged to $3.8 billion, and it increased further to $4.7 billion in 2023. 

And the Pentagon’s latest budget request for FY2025 totaled a whopping $6.9 billion.

Did you catch that? We went from spending a quarter-billion dollars on hypersonics to spending almost $7 billion practically overnight. And hypersonic funding is still on the rise because we haven’t yet caught Russia or China.

That’s a massive opportunity for investors — one I profited from in the past. 

For years, as far back as 2017, I was telling subscribers to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne — the last freestanding rocket motor manufacturer. And to this day, AJRD remains a key partner in hypersonic projects, providing the motors that make these missiles fly. 

Unfortunately for investors, though, it was acquired by L3Harris (NYSE: LHX) in 2022. This resulted in a tidy 40% gain for my readers, but the gain almost certainly would have been greater if the company had remained independent.

Nevertheless, my friend and colleague Jason Williams just uncovered a new hypersonic play. And its returns will absolutely dwarf the 40% gain I booked on AJRD two years ago. 

So I highly encourage you to get all the details on that here. Because hypersonic profits are real. And they’re climbing higher each year.

Fight on,

Jason Simpkins

Simpkins is the founder and editor of Secret Stock Files, an investment service that focuses on companies with assets — tangible resources and products that can hold and appreciate in value. He covers mining companies, energy companies, defense contractors, dividend payers, commodities, staples, legacies and more…

In 2023 he joined The Wealth Advisory team as a defense market analyst where he reviews and recommends new military and government opportunities that come across his radar, especially those that spin-off healthy, growing income streams. For more on Jason, check out his editor’s page.

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