I find it hard to believe that the military's newly announced hypersonic weapon system is unrelated to the "non-rocket/nothing-to-see-hear" rocket launch we all witnessed off the west coast last year.
U.S. Army Tests Secret Hypersonic Weapon
Published November 17, 2011
Technews Network
- DARPAThe DARPA Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV)-2, one of several hypersonic test projects underway by various U.S. military agencies.
The U.S. Army's hypersonic weapon
prototype streaked across the Pacific Ocean at several times the speed
of sound Thurs., Nov. 17, in a flawless maiden test flight. The success
could pave the way for a new military capability to strike targets
anywhere on Earth in as little as an hour.
Such a hypersonic weapon concept flies at a
relatively flat trajectory within the atmosphere, rather than soaring up
toward space like a ballistic missile and eventually coming back down.
Hypersonic speed is defined as being at least five times the speed of
sound (3,805 mph, or 6,124 kph, at sea level). An unmanned aircraft that can travel
at a breakneck pace 20 times the speed of sound will take off Wednesday
from an Air Force base in California for a test flight.
The Army's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon
launched aboard a three-stage booster system from the Pacific Missile
Range Facility on the island of Kauai in Hawaii at 6:30 AM ET, deployed
for its hypersonic glide, and eventually splashed down in the Reagan
Test Site located near the Kwajalein Atoll.
Pentagon officials kept a careful watch on
the flight test from space, air, sea and ground. That allowed them to
collect data about aerodynamics, navigation, guidance, and control
performance, as well as thermal protection technologies meant to shrug
off intense heat during hypersonic flight.
Such success may provide some consolation to DARPA, given that its Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2
(HTV-2) experienced problems in its two test flights that led to early
crashes. HTV-2 reached a speed of Mach 20 during its latest test in
August.
The Air Force has also tested its own X-51A Waverider vehicle,
most recently on June 13, as an experimental platform for an
air-breathing scramjet engine. During the latest test, the X-51A
Waverider reached hypersonic speeds of at least Mach 5 before it failed
to switch over to its main fuel source.
Having several hypersonic projects resembles
the early days of U.S. rocket and missile development, when the Army
and Air Force competed to get their rockets off the ground. But any
success in the hypersonic realm seems likely to benefit the U.S.
military's unified goal for a "Conventional Prompt Global Strike" weapon
designed to speedily attack targets around the world
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