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For many years now, the Pentagon and DARPA have been hard at work on some wild weapon systems and other stuff. One of the coolest was that Transformer vehicle that was a jeep that could be flown like a helicopter as well. Another of the wild weapon systems that DARPA is working on is the mach 20 weapon system called the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 or HTV-2 for short.

The goal of this project is to create a missile system that can strike any target on earth within an hour. The first test of the HTV-2 ended after only 9-minutes of flight when the ship crashed into the ocean and could not be recovered. DARPA is set to test the missile again with a lift off from California. This may well be the final chance for the weapon.

If it has another catastrophic failure, it could be scrapped since the budget crunch has hit the Pentagon so hard. The design of the HTV-2 was very odd and in testing, it was found to be hard to stabilize in flight. The fear is a redesign of the vehicle could mean an end for the project.

[via Wired]