Current US hypersonic weapons projects. (General)

bobbymike said:
breakingdefense.com

Air Force's first hypersonic missile could still start production this year - Breaking Defense

The Air Force still doesn't know what caused a December launch of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon to fail, but it still has time to wrap up flight tests by the end of fiscal 2022, Brig. Gen. Heath Collins said.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
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Has there been one reporter that as has asked the AF leaders a single question about progress on TBG? How do they plan on entering production this year if the glider they are fielding hasn't even completed prototype demonstrations yet.
 
Isn't that looking more and more like an Op? Test that all fail while being continously advertised that everybody can have their eyes on?
Imagine if they had achieved Hyperstealth. What would be there to see for most... Whooof.
Wouldn't that be interesting?
 
University of Central Florida researchers are part of a new $1 million project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to better understand and predict how and why raindrops are affected when they cross a hypersonic shock wave.

Hypersonic speeds are those at Mach 5 and higher, or five times greater than the speed of sound. The U.S. is currently working on developing hypersonic systems for defense and travel.

The new project is important because colliding with something as light as a single raindrop could cause a lot of damage at hypersonic speeds. The work will inform researchers as to whether or not the raindrop maintains its single droplet form or breaks up into tens of much smaller droplets.
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www.ucf.edu

UCF Lands New Project to Study Effect of Rain on Hypersonic Travel

UCF researchers are part of a new $1M project to better understand and predict how and why raindrops are affected when they cross a hypersonic shock wave.
www.ucf.edu www.ucf.edu
www.sciencedirect.com

Investigation of the Physical Phenomena Associated with Rain Impacts on Supersonic and Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

The U.S. Army AMRDEC has been performing research focusing on both analytical modeling and obtaining validation data through experimentation. The focu…
www.sciencedirect.com www.sciencedirect.com
 

Wanted: hypersonic missile with standardized payload interface able to carry out several kinds of missions​


March 3, 2022

Potential $334 million Mayhem project seeks a standardized payload interface for multi-mission payload integration within the same hypersonic system.

John Keller
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – U.S. Air Force researchers are kicking off a shadowy project to develop a large air-breathing missile able to carry out several different kinds of missions with a standardized payload interface. Officials of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, issued a broad agency announcement on Monday (FA8650-17-S-2002_Call_003) for the Expendable Hypersonic Multi-Mission ISR and Strike (Mayhem) program.
It is expected that Mayhem payloads will involve delivering kinetic or explosive weapons, or intelligence and reconnaissance sensor payloads at hypersonic speeds. Hypersonic typically refers to objects traveling faster than Mach 5, or 3,836 miles per hour.
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www.militaryaerospace.com

Wanted: hypersonic missile with standardized payload interface able to carry out several kinds of missions

Potential $334 million Mayhem project seeks a standardized payload interface for multi-mission payload integration within the same hypersonic system.
www.militaryaerospace.com www.militaryaerospace.com
 
A two-stage suborbital sounding rocket was launched at 7:12 p.m. EDT, March 21, for a mission managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory/Air Force Office of Scientific Research, from NASA’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The launch of the Terrier-Improved Malemute rocket was for the BOundary Layer Turbulence 2, or BOLT-2, BOLT-2 mission, investigating boundary layer transition, turbulent heating, and drag at hypersonic conditions. Boundary layer transition to turbulence is the process where smooth, laminar flow becomes unstable after which turbulence dominates and significantly increases heating and drag on high-speed vehicles.

The next launch from Wallops is a two-stage Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket carrying the RockOn/RockSat-C educational payload. The launch is targeted for early morning June 23.

www.nasa.gov

Suborbital Rocket Launched From NASA Wallops - NASA

A two-stage suborbital sounding rocket was launched at 7:12 p.m. EDT, March 21, for a mission managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory/Air Force Office of Scientific Research, from NASA’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
www.nasa.gov www.nasa.gov
 
Ronny said:
edition.cnn.com

US tested hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet to avoid escalating tensions with Russia

The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia as President Joe Biden was about to travel to Europe, according to a defense official familiar with the matter.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
HAWC tested successfully a second times. BTW, do anyone have the list of US hypersonic test till date?
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Second HAWC from Lockheed ,first from raytheon
 
seruriermarshal said:
Ronny said:
edition.cnn.com

US tested hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet to avoid escalating tensions with Russia

The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia as President Joe Biden was about to travel to Europe, according to a defense official familiar with the matter.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
HAWC tested successfully a second times. BTW, do anyone have the list of US hypersonic test till date?
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Second HAWC from Lockheed ,first from raytheon
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I meant something like this
hypersonic test summary.PNG
 
HAWC and ARRW seem to be night and day, success wise. It seems likely to me that if the ARRW program doesn't resolve its issues, HCSW won't be revived to replace it. That missile was criticized as being even heavier than ARRW (probably due to the larger conical glider), and while boost-glide is definitely in a different performance envelope than HAWC, the cost point on an air breather is going to make it hard to justify a weapon that is carried externally in limited numbers only on a strategic bomber.

It's interesting that the HAWC test info was withheld due to concerns it would be viewed as an escalation. I think that will likely be the case with future tests until the conflict is resolved, making US hypersonic testing even more secretive than it has been.
 
Josh_TN said:
HAWC and ARRW seem to be night and day, success wise.
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Apples and oranges. Comparison should be between operational prototyping efforts. This would be between ARRW and HACM which is the operational prototyping program leveraging HAWC and SCiFiRE work. HACM is currently in the pre CDR phase and expects to complete CDR by mid next near or about 3 years after ARRW reached the same milestone. The ARRW program is investing in a full up weapon and weapon testing (note the warhead testing a while back) while HAWC is simply de - risking a scramjet cruise missile concept and it would still need a 5 year effort to operationalize a prototype under the FY-22 HACM OTA (fielded in 2027).
 
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Lockheed Martin’s version of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept missile demonstrator set a record for hypersonic flight under scramjet power in a just-revealed March flight test, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency confirmed.

The flight test likely achieved about 327 seconds of hypersonic flight under scramjet power, versus 200 seconds achieved by the Boeing X-51 Waverider in 2010, based on figures provided by DARPA.

“DARPA, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, recently completed a second successful test of a Hypersonic Air-breathing Concept, known as HAWC,” Stefanie Tompkins, head of DARPA, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities. “This test set a record for scramjet endurance, and we believe it’s an inflection point on the path to reclaiming U.S. leadership in hypersonic weapons.”

Tompkins did not provide details, but DARPA issued a release saying it had flown the Lockheed HAWC 300 miles at altitudes up to 65,000 feet. Scramjets require supersonic speeds to ignite, and are boosted to those speeds by a detachable rocket. Since hypersonic flight begins very quickly after the rocket fires, most of the 300 miles would be flown under scramjet power.

At 65,000 feet, the speed of sound is 660 mph. Hypersonic flight is considered above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, meaning the HAWC’s speed at that altitude would be at least 3,300 mph. At that speed, 300 miles would be covered in 1/11 of an hour, translating to a flight time of 5:45 minutes, or about 327 seconds.

“We were at hypersonic speeds for the majority of that distance, and it would be a longer flight than X-51,” a DARPA spokesman said in response to that calculation.

Tompkins’ testimony remark also suggests the duration of flight by the Lockheed HAWC bested the performance of the competing Raytheon HAWC, which made a free flight in September 2021. Few details of that test were revealed, although it was touted as a success by DARPA.
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https://www.airforcemag.com/new-hawc-hypersonic-missile-sets-record-for-endurance/
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All we can say for sure, assuming the DARPA statement is accurate, is that the test exceeded the previous HACW test and the 210 seconds of the X-51. Actual duration would be dependent on speed, which we don't know. It's probably a safe assumption that the HACW demos are at the low end of hypersonic - that seems to be a sweet spot in terms of speed, fuel efficiency, and ease of manufacture (ie less thermal stress allowing for less exotic materials), but we don't really have any information.

What I found remarkable about the X-51 test was that it purportedly only used 270lbs of fuel for a ~4000lb object that traveled 200+ miles under power. To put that into perspective, I think a BGM-109 carries almost a thousand pounds of fuel. Presumably HACW demos are even more fuel efficient than the X-51, being newer in design and apparently with much lower engine weight.
 
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An advanced Aerojet Rocketdyne scramjet engine powered the successful flight test of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), in a joint effort with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Lockheed Martin.

The goal of the DARPA / Lockheed Martin HAWC program is to develop and demonstrate critical technologies to enable an effective and affordable air-launched hypersonic cruise missile system.

“Aerojet Rocketdyne is well-positioned to support our nation’s hypersonic development and production,” said Eileen P. Drake, Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and president. “By applying decades of advanced research and development, together with engineering know-how and innovative manufacturing and materials, our products optimize performance while dramatically reducing costs and development time.”

Through the use of additive manufacturing, Aerojet Rocketdyne is using 95% fewer parts in its scramjets than it used for the history-making scramjet engine that powered the United States Air Force X-51A Waverider to sustained hypersonic speed. Aerojet Rocketdyne has continued to improve the aerothermal performance, affordability, scalability and rapid manufacturability of scramjet engines to meet emerging needs for hypersonic missile and aircraft applications.
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Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Advanced Scramjet Engine Powers Successful Hypersonic Vehicle Flight | Aerojet Rocketdyne

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An advanced Aerojet Rocketdyne scramjet engine powered the successful flight test of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), in a joint effort with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research...
rocket.com rocket.com
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It is for the entire hypersonic prototyping effort with the AF. When the materials are published you can see all individual programs that are included (but likely elements of HACM and ARRW make up the largest portion of this)
 

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