The U.S. military is working to build a new hypersonic aircraft that can travel at speeds up to Mach 5 -- or five times the speed of sound, Military.com reported.

The plane would be able to carry guidance systems and other materials while flying at that unusual velocity.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency hope to take clues from the successful hypersonic flight of the Boeing X-51 Waverider, an unmanned scramjet that managed to reach a speed of Mach 5.1 when it was tested 60,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean in May of 2013, according to the U.S. Air Force.

A B-52H Stratofortress bomber carried the X-51 on its wing before releasing it at 50,000 feet. The aircraft then accelerated to Mach 4.8 in a mere 26 seconds. Before hitting its top velocity and crashing into the ocean, the vehicle was able to send back data, which are now being used by scientists to engineer a more complete hypersonic vehicle, Military.com detailed.

This new and improved aircraft might be available by 2023, Air Force Chief Scientist Mica Endsley told the website.

"X-51 was really a proof of concept test," Endsley said. "It showed that you could get a scramjet engine, launch it off an aircraft and it could go hypersonic. It was able to go more than Mach 5 until it ran out of fuel. It was a very successful test of an airborne hypersonic weapons system," she added.

Pentagon and Air Force officials see hypersonic flight as an integral part of the future of warfare, Military.com explained. That is because today's cruise missiles travel at speeds up to 600 miles per hour, while hypersonic weapons can reach a velocity of up to Mach 10, they noted.

"Certainly, the (United States) is not the only country involved in developing hypersonic weapons," and other nations -- notably China -- "are showing a lot of capability in this area," Endsley cautioned. "The advantage of hypersonics is not just that something goes very fast -- but that it can go great distances at those speeds," she added.