US President Donald Trump has offered a sneak peak into the future of American military tech, talking up what he called a “super duper missile,” but his scientific terminology was simply too much for some netizens to take.
The comment came during an Oval Office ceremony to unveil the official flag of the Space Force on Friday, with Trump taking a brief detour into state-of-the-art hardware under development at the Pentagon.
“We have, I call it the Super Duper Missile. And I heard the other night [it's] 17 times faster than what they have right now,” Trump said.
If you take the fastest missile right now – you've heard Russia has five times [faster], China is working on five or six times [faster]. We have one 17 times... 17 times faster, if you can believe that.
Since the president didn’t elaborate on the weapon he had in mind, many indeed had a hard time believing that. The Pentagon and Beijing are both currently developing hypersonic missiles – capable of exceeding Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound – while Moscow has already put its own Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle into service.
READ MORE: US now races to CATCH UP with Russia on hypersonic weapons – Putin
Trump’s highly technical description immediately triggered a wave of mockery across social media, with some netizens sharing a “leaked photo” of the new mega munition, while others thought the name was more fitting for Dr Evil, the satirical super villain.
Some offered few additional ideas for what to name future weapons, including the “Big Boom Bomb” and the “Shooty Shooty Rifle” – perhaps the Defense Department should take notes.
Space Force, the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces, was created in December, and will extend the US military footprint further into space to “protect American interests” and “deter aggression,” according to the Pentagon. The agency will continue the work of the Air Force Space Command, with Air Force General John Raymond serving as its first chief of space operations.
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