President Trump announces defense test range in Montana — TimesLIVE

US President Donald Trump announced plans to create a new defense test range in Montana for testing advanced military technologies. He made the statement during a campaign event in the city of Kalispell, TimesLIVE reports, citing Reuters.

Testing autonomous and hypersonic systems

According to Trump, the so-called super test range will be used to test the latest weapons and technologies. Among the areas he named were potential autonomous weapons systems, space technologies, electronic warfare capabilities, as well as supersonic and hypersonic systems.

Trump said Montana would help maintain the advantage of the US military. Kalispell is a city with a population of about 30,000, located approximately 320 km northwest of the state capital, Helena.

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Existing testing infrastructure

Montana already has the Montana Spaceport and Test Range and the affiliated Limestone Hills innovation and testing campus. This is a public-private initiative in the aerospace and defense sectors that develops infrastructure for commercial, civilian, and military testing.

Trump did not specify whether the new Pentagon initiative would be linked to the existing facilities. Some military planners consider autonomous systems, space technologies, electronic warfare, and hypersonic weapons to be important areas of future warfare. Supersonic systems travel at speeds above Mach 1, while hypersonic systems exceed Mach 5.

The announcement came during Trump's trip through the states in support of Republican candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. All 435 members of the US House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are to be elected.