Alaska’s state-owned Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island launched a secret U.S. Department of Defense missile last week during what observers believe was a hypersonic weapon being tested by the U.S. military.

The launch, which was not disclosed beforehand, took place about 10 p.m. Thursday night and was observed by people across the Kodiak Archipelago and was visible as far away as Seward .

Hypersonic missiles are those that can travel at least five times the speed of sound.

While long-range ballistic missiles — produced since World War II — frequently exceed that threshold, they cannot typically maneuver to avoid defenses and are locked on a fixed trajectory.

Modern hypersonic missiles, under development by several countries, would be able to avoid anti-missile systems

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