US Hypersonics - Prompt Global Strike Capability

[bring_it_on]

OpFires
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE AND DESCRIPTION:

The objective of the OpFires program is to develop and demonstrate a novel groundlaunched
system enabling advanced weapons to penetrate modern enemy air defenses
and rapidly and precisely engage critical time sensitive targets. DARPA seeks to develop
an advanced booster capable of delivering a variety of payloads at a variety of ranges.
OpFires will focus on the development of innovative propulsion to maximize the
operational range envelope of the system and adapt to a variety of potential payloads.
The program plans to conduct a series of subsystem tests designed to evaluate
component design and system compatibility, and assess the value of innovative
propulsion system concepts. It is planned to culminate in an integrated end-to-end flight
test campaign following integration with a compatible mobile ground launch platform.
The OpFires program includes two separate and successive tasks, the Propulsion System
task and the Weapon System Integration task. Each task will have a separate BAA. This
Proposers Day and associated BAA will encompass the Propulsion System task. The
Propulsion System task will focus on developing and demonstrating innovative
propulsion concepts for flexible-range boosters and will be conducted in two phases.
Phase 1 will include propulsion system preliminary design and proof of concept testing
to demonstrate key elements of the propulsion system design. Phase 2 is anticipated to
mature designs to critical design level and conduct hot/static fires of at least two
representative test articles.
A BAA for the Weapon System Integration task is planned for release in FY 2019.

 

[bobbymike]

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/5/15/air-force-planning-hypersonic-flight-tests-over-next-two-years

The Air Force is gearing up for hypersonic tests as the Defense Department seeks to keep pace with China and Russia, Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski said May 15.

The Air Force Materiel Command commander said the service has been working collaboratively with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on efforts to develop new missile technologies that travel faster than Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound — and at least two flight tests are currently scheduled in support of those efforts “within the next couple of years.”

The service has been hard at work understanding and developing hypersonic missiles and flight vehicles, Pawlikowski told reporters at a media breakfast in Washington, D.C. Russia and China have touted their own recent tests, prompting Pentagon officials and U.S. lawmakers to express concern about falling behind peer adversaries.

The Air Force is also investing in ground testing to develop hypersonic technology. It is revitalizing test centers at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex at Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, that will help the service gather important information from ground tests and reduce the need for risky and relatively costly flight demonstrations, she said.

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/lack-of-funds-causes-usaf-to-skip-hypersonic-cruise-449192/

The US Air Force skipped a more extensive competition for its nearly $1 billion hypersonic cruise missile development contract due to lack of available funds to pay multiple sources to develop alternative prototypes, according to a newly-released government document.

The move is a departure from normal Department of Defense policy on most advanced weapons development programmes.

Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems won the indefinite-delivery and indefinite quantity award worth up to $928 million to develop a hypersonic cruise missile in April 2018.

 

[seruriermarshal]

;D

HIFiRE 7 payload

 

[bobbymike]

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/hypersonic-weapons-race/

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s saber rattling this year about high-speed weapons, the U.S. was laying plans to sharpen its focus on hypersonic weapons, motivated mainly by China’s ambitious research and weapons tests. The Trump Pentagon wants to put this new focus in place in the 2019 budget.

Chinese researchers have been publishing technical papers at a blistering pace about their fundamental research into hypersonic flight, loosely defined as maneuvering in the atmosphere at speeds above 6,000 kph. Flying faster than Mach 5 could be a handy way to travel, but for the leaders in this field — China, Russia and the U.S. — the emphasis has shifted to weapons. At least some of China’s research appears to be headed in that direction, based on references to missiles in the published papers, although my inquiries to the Chinese Embassy’s press office about the purpose of this research went unreturned. The Pentagon reported to Congress earlier this year that China has conducted 20 times as many hypersonic flight tests as the U.S. The most noteworthy recent test was in November, when China flew a new hypersonic missile, the DF-17, capable of flying 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers, as first reported by The Diplomat website.

 

[Airplane]

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/hypersonic-weapons-race/

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s saber rattling this year about high-speed weapons, the U.S. was laying plans to sharpen its focus on hypersonic weapons, motivated mainly by China’s ambitious research and weapons tests. The Trump Pentagon wants to put this new focus in place in the 2019 budget.

Chinese researchers have been publishing technical papers at a blistering pace about their fundamental research into hypersonic flight, loosely defined as maneuvering in the atmosphere at speeds above 6,000 kph. Flying faster than Mach 5 could be a handy way to travel, but for the leaders in this field — China, Russia and the U.S. — the emphasis has shifted to weapons. At least some of China’s research appears to be headed in that direction, based on references to missiles in the published papers, although my inquiries to the Chinese Embassy’s press office about the purpose of this research went unreturned. The Pentagon reported to Congress earlier this year that China has conducted 20 times as many hypersonic flight tests as the U.S. The most noteworthy recent test was in November, when China flew a new hypersonic missile, the DF-17, capable of flying 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers, as first reported by The Diplomat website.

The US has flown FAR more hypersonic flights than China... By a GREAT deal.

 

[sferrin]

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/hypersonic-weapons-race/

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s saber rattling this year about high-speed weapons, the U.S. was laying plans to sharpen its focus on hypersonic weapons, motivated mainly by China’s ambitious research and weapons tests. The Trump Pentagon wants to put this new focus in place in the 2019 budget.

Chinese researchers have been publishing technical papers at a blistering pace about their fundamental research into hypersonic flight, loosely defined as maneuvering in the atmosphere at speeds above 6,000 kph. Flying faster than Mach 5 could be a handy way to travel, but for the leaders in this field — China, Russia and the U.S. — the emphasis has shifted to weapons. At least some of China’s research appears to be headed in that direction, based on references to missiles in the published papers, although my inquiries to the Chinese Embassy’s press office about the purpose of this research went unreturned. The Pentagon reported to Congress earlier this year that China has conducted 20 times as many hypersonic flight tests as the U.S. The most noteworthy recent test was in November, when China flew a new hypersonic missile, the DF-17, capable of flying 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers, as first reported by The Diplomat website.

The US has flown FAR more hypersonic flights than China... By a GREAT deal.

Not in recent history.

 

[Flyaway]

Hypersonic Flight: Progress and Challenges

Join the Doolittle Institute, the Northwest Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Aerospace and Aeronautics (AIAA), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for our distinguished speaker series. For this speaking engagement, we’ll welcome Dr. Mark Lewis as he discusses Hypersonic Flight: Progress and Challenges on the Way to High Mach Systems.

Dr. Lewis, a longtime advocate of hypersonics, is currently the director of the Science and Technology Policy Institute within the Institute for Defense Analyses, which is one of the nation’s Federally-Funded Research & Development Centers (FFRDC). He is a former Chief Scientist of the Air Force as well as past national president of AIAA. You can read Dr. Lewis’ full bio here.

The lecture will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Doolittle Institute’s Shangri-La Auditorium; a networking and meet-and-greet will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

http://defensewerx.org/events/hypersonic-flight-progress-and-challenges/

 

[Airplane]

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/hypersonic-weapons-race/

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s saber rattling this year about high-speed weapons, the U.S. was laying plans to sharpen its focus on hypersonic weapons, motivated mainly by China’s ambitious research and weapons tests. The Trump Pentagon wants to put this new focus in place in the 2019 budget.

Chinese researchers have been publishing technical papers at a blistering pace about their fundamental research into hypersonic flight, loosely defined as maneuvering in the atmosphere at speeds above 6,000 kph. Flying faster than Mach 5 could be a handy way to travel, but for the leaders in this field — China, Russia and the U.S. — the emphasis has shifted to weapons. At least some of China’s research appears to be headed in that direction, based on references to missiles in the published papers, although my inquiries to the Chinese Embassy’s press office about the purpose of this research went unreturned. The Pentagon reported to Congress earlier this year that China has conducted 20 times as many hypersonic flight tests as the U.S. The most noteworthy recent test was in November, when China flew a new hypersonic missile, the DF-17, capable of flying 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers, as first reported by The Diplomat website.

The US has flown FAR more hypersonic flights than China... By a GREAT deal.

Not in recent history.

The data remains and is stored and shared with the contractors. The engineering pool has been kept warm over the years with various projects. Its not all doom and gloom as it may appear. The last time I checked, the US has had a number of space planes... And it still has at least one that is acknowledged. China has none. Russia kind of sort of had one. We may already be flying the so called sr72 demonstrator. If we needed a hypersonic weapon 'tomorrow', we could pull it off. Thank god for presidential term limits because another 4 years of captain zero would have decimated our military. Now its just a matter of funding, which seems like its there now.

 

[marauder2048]

Navy

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Space, Sunnyvale, California, is awarded an
$11,877,482 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Hypersonic Booster technology
development seeking to demonstrate technologies related to intermediate range
capability through booster design, fabrication and validation testing. The work will be
performed in Sunnyvale, California (49.34 percent); Magna, Utah (34.16 percent); Elma,
New York (10.70 percent); Huntsville, Alabama (3.75 percent); and Mooresville, North
Carolina (2.05 percent), with an expected completion date of June 2019. Fiscal 2018
research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $11,877,482 are
being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal
year. This contract was a competitive acquisition. Strategic Systems Programs,
Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00030-18-C-0025).

 

[DrRansom]

The hypersonics engineer pool is in dire condition. The experience is all approaching retirement and there are precious few hypersonics aerospace people coming up.

 

[sferrin]

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/hypersonic-weapons-race/

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s saber rattling this year about high-speed weapons, the U.S. was laying plans to sharpen its focus on hypersonic weapons, motivated mainly by China’s ambitious research and weapons tests. The Trump Pentagon wants to put this new focus in place in the 2019 budget.

Chinese researchers have been publishing technical papers at a blistering pace about their fundamental research into hypersonic flight, loosely defined as maneuvering in the atmosphere at speeds above 6,000 kph. Flying faster than Mach 5 could be a handy way to travel, but for the leaders in this field — China, Russia and the U.S. — the emphasis has shifted to weapons. At least some of China’s research appears to be headed in that direction, based on references to missiles in the published papers, although my inquiries to the Chinese Embassy’s press office about the purpose of this research went unreturned. The Pentagon reported to Congress earlier this year that China has conducted 20 times as many hypersonic flight tests as the U.S. The most noteworthy recent test was in November, when China flew a new hypersonic missile, the DF-17, capable of flying 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers, as first reported by The Diplomat website.

The US has flown FAR more hypersonic flights than China... By a GREAT deal.

Not in recent history.

The data remains and is stored and shared with the contractors.

ROFL! I wish that were the case. Maybe sometimes it is but that is the exception rather than the rule.

 

[sferrin]

The hypersonics engineer pool is in dire condition. The experience is all approaching retirement and there are precious few hypersonics aerospace people coming up.

Considering the pathetic history the last 40 years in the US with hypersonics (or even supersonic) why would anybody be interested? The last supersonic air-launched strike weapon program in the US was ASALM in the late 70s.

 

[bobbymike]

The hypersonics engineer pool is in dire condition. The experience is all approaching retirement and there are precious few hypersonics aerospace people coming up.

Considering the pathetic history the last 40 years in the US with hypersonics (or even supersonic) why would anybody be interested? The last supersonic air-launched strike weapon program in the US was ASALM in the late 70s.

My fear with the nuke enterprise. Yes please study for a decade and then never get to build a nuke why bother.

 

[sferrin]

And it was cancelled. The fact that the much later ASALM-based LRASM-B was cancelled because it was "too risky" (yeah, 30 year old technology was "too risky") doesn't speak well of our ability or even willingness to try something difficult.

 

[DrRansom]

Considering the pathetic history the last 40 years in the US with hypersonics (or even supersonic) why would anybody be interested? The last supersonic air-launched strike weapon program in the US was ASALM in the late 70s.

Exactly, NASP gets cancelled and that generation of engineers get fired and the academics lose their grants, so there aren't any new hypersonics engineers coming up.

That was 25 years ago.

Of course the workforce is in trouble. Why take a pay cut and a permanent job risk working for a niche defense only field when you know there is no desire to keep hypersonics people around.

 

[bobbymike]

Well maybe we can excite and inspire the science and engineering academic community again.

https://www.kagstv.com/article/news/local/air-force-looks-to-texas-am-to-reach-hypersonic-speeds/499-568168264

Air Force officials will be on campus at Texas A&M this week as part of a new initiative referred to as “Science and Technology 2030.” The U.S. Air Force is looking for help from universities like Texas A&M to better understand hypersonics and what it takes to build vehicles and defense systems that operate at speeds that can melt most metals and even change the air on a chemical level.

Since both China and Russia are rapidly developing hypersonic weapons and technology, the need for hypersonic research in the U.S. is a pressing matter of national security.

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp recently spoke with Dr. Rodney Bowersox, head of the Aerospace Engineering department, and Dr. Simon North, head of the Chemistry department, about hypersonics and the work being done at Texas A&M University.

“Texas A&M University students and scientists are in a unique position to lend their expertise to the Air Force,” Chancellor Sharp said. “We take our role seriously here and understand that the work of Aggies is vital to the future security of our nation.”

 

[Moose]

Considering the pathetic history the last 40 years in the US with hypersonics (or even supersonic) why would anybody be interested? The last supersonic air-launched strike weapon program in the US was ASALM in the late 70s.

Exactly, NASP gets cancelled and that generation of engineers get fired and the academics lose their grants, so there aren't any new hypersonics engineers coming up.

That was 25 years ago.

Of course the workforce is in trouble. Why take a pay cut and a permanent job risk working for a niche defense only field when you know there is no desire to keep hypersonics people around.

There are indeed several young engineers working in hypersonics. The workforce is not where you or I would want it, but it hasn't vanished.

 

[bobbymike]

http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2018/August%202018/The-Great-Hypersonic-Race.aspx

China, the US, and Russia are each striving to be the first nation to develop hypersonic systems: aircraft and missiles that can cruise and maneuver at five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) or faster. The winner of this technology contest will have daunting military advantages. Such weapons promise the ability to hit targets from very long ranges, yet with such speed and surprise that defending against them is extremely difficult.

Hypersonic weapons could give those that possess them tactical capabilities with potentially strategic effects. Its potential disruptive effect on military operations—the ability to fly at a mile a second at Mach 5—is most often compared to that of stealth and precision weapons when those technologies appeared in the 1980s.

The consensus view is that China, so far, is winning the hypersonics race, largely through financial brute force. USAF Gen. Paul J. Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in January that China has made hypersonics research “a national program”—a kind of Manhattan Project—and it is “willing to spend … up to hundreds of billions to solve the problems of hypersonic flight, hypersonic target designation and then, ultimately, engagement.”

Chinese state media announced in March, for example, that China is building a 265-meter long wind tunnel to simulate the environment from Mach 10 to Mach 25, which is to be complete by 2020. It already has tunnels capable of simulating conditions between Mach 5 to 9. Though the US has hypersonic tunnels, most are quite small, for tests lasting less than a few seconds.
Russia, meanwhile, announced in March that it is testing the “Kinzhal” missile, which president Vladimir Putin boasted can fly at Mach 10, has a range beyond 2,000 kilometers, can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, and can defeat any existing “or prospective” air defense system. Although many leading US technologists scoffed at the claim, US Strategic Command chief Gen. John E. Hyten confirmed to reporters at a Colorado space conference in April that both China and Russia are flight-testing hypersonic concepts, saying “you should believe Vladimir Putin about everything he said he’s working on.”

While Hyten said it’s a “different issue” as to whether those systems are deployed, “we … listen to what they say very closely, and none of what he did …

 

[bobbymike]

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/6/26/air-force-science-chief-cautions-against-fear-of-failure-in-hypersonics-development

The Defense Department must change its risk averse acquisition culture as it seeks to develop new hypersonic weapons to compete with China and Russia, the Air Force’s chief scientist warned June 26.

During remarks at the Defense One Tech Summit in Washington, D.C., Richard Joseph recalled a conversation he had with a colleague at a national laboratory.

“He said, ’Why is it when we do a test on a hypersonic missile for instance, and the test doesn’t come out the way it’s supposed to come out, people call for the cancelation of the whole effort?’” Joseph said. “It’s because they’re thinking that somewhere in the beginning of the process we were able to think out every detail of what we needed to do, that we knew everything we needed to know, and then if we had something that didn’t work in the process, that meant the whole thing was flawed.”

 

[Airplane]

And it was cancelled. The fact that the much later ASALM-based LRASM-B was cancelled because it was "too risky" (yeah, 30 year old technology was "too risky") doesn't speak well of our ability or even willingness to try something difficult.

In a world of black programs - and secrecy - what do you want them to say the reason it was cancelled? "We cancelled it because we secretly developed something else, and is as effective and we don't need that right now given the budgetary climate. . . "

You never seem to see the forest through the trees. You try to do a good job with what you have available online.

 

[sferrin]

And it was cancelled. The fact that the much later ASALM-based LRASM-B was cancelled because it was "too risky" (yeah, 30 year old technology was "too risky") doesn't speak well of our ability or even willingness to try something difficult.

In a world of black programs - and secrecy - what do you want them to say the reason it was cancelled? "We cancelled it because we secretly developed something else, and is as effective and we don't need that right now given the budgetary climate. . . "

Their past track record suggests your scenario is an utter fantasy. Besides, if they had something better they wouldn't have bothered even looking at LRASM-B.

 

[bobbymike]

http://aviationweek.com/future-aerospace/generation-orbit-fires-hypersonic-testbed?NL=AW-05&Issue=AW-05_20180703_AW-05_204&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2&utm_rid=CPEN1000000230026&utm_campaign=15475&utm_medium=email&elq2=0ef065e588ed4e2d812c58710cdf5367

Generation Orbit Launch Services has completed the first hot-fire test of a full-scale prototype of its GOLauncher1 (GO1) hypersonic flight-test booster.

The startup is developing the air-launched GO1 for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as an affordable and flexible hypersonic testbed.

The firing was the first of its kind to be conducted at Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, and also GO’s first test campaign with Ursa Major Technologies’ Hadley liquid rocket engine. The 5,000 lb. thrust-class oxygen-rich staged combustion engine performed as expected through the tests, GO said.

I posted my thoughts a couple years back just get a Roadrunner II SRM put a BGV on the front end ya got a near term hypersonic strike weapon.

 

[seruriermarshal]

;D

 

[GeorgeA]

http://aviationweek.com/future-aerospace/week-technology-july-9-13-2018

Another Hypersonic Weapon Deal for Lockheed

Lockheed Martin has secured another hypersonic weapon-related contract, with a $40.5 million U.S. Navy award for booster technology development. This follows the April award of a U.S. Air Force contract, potentially worth $928 million, to develop a hypersonic strike missile for fielding by 2022.

The latest Hypersonic Booster Technology Development (HBTD) contract, awarded by the Navy’s Strategic Systems Program, may be related to the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) weapon that Lockheed’s Skunk Works is developing for DARPA. The air-launched, rocket-boosted missile demonstrator is scheduled to fly in 2019.

The request for proposals for HBTD refers to a “hypersonic glide body.” This sounds similar to TBG, which is a 500-nm-range unpowered glider accelerated to hypersonic speed by a rocket booster. DARPA’s fiscal 2019 budget request indicates the agency plans to develop a ship-launched version.

In addition to the TBG, the Skunk Works is under contract to develop DARPA’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), an air-launched, scramjet-powered missile demonstrator also scheduled to fly in 2019. Raytheon is also under contract to build a HAWC demonstrator.
Lockheed’s April contract, meanwhile, covers development of the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Missile (HCSW, pronounced “Hacksaw”), a simpler air-launched, rocket-powered weapon intended for more rapid development to arm existing Air Force fighters and bombers.

Lockheed also is working on the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced “Arrow”), a hypersonic boost-glide weapon being developed for the Air Force under an extension to the DARPA contract for TBG. ARRW and HAWC may be potential follow-ons to HCSW.

 

[marauder2048]

The request for proposals for HBTD refers to a “hypersonic glide body.” This sounds similar to TBG

I thought it sounded more similar to the "AHW hypersonic glide body" that the Navy's SSP tested successfully in the Fall of 2017.

 

[seruriermarshal]

The request for proposals for HBTD refers to a “hypersonic glide body.” This sounds similar to TBG

I thought it sounded more similar to the "AHW hypersonic glide body" that the Navy's SSP tested successfully in the Fall of 2017.

Any information about SSP ?

 

[GeorgeA]

Any information about SSP ?

The Strategic Systems Program Office manages the Navy's ballistic missile efforts. They tend to be under the radar, pardon the pun, but have shepherded the SLBM program from its earliest Polaris A1 days to the current Trident D5. It's the effective equivalent of the Air Force's Space and Missile Center (originally the Western Development Division) for land-based ICBMs.

http://www.ssp.navy.mil/

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/07/16/3-thoughts-on-hypersonic-weapons-from-the-pentagons-technology-chief/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=Socialflow&utm_medium=social

WASHINGTON — If military terms can be described as clothing, then hypersonic weapons are the couture, stylish, must-talk-about item of the summer.

The technology behind them. The theory around them. The questions of what competitors are saying and doing with them. Nearly every discussion about future capabilities for America’s defense includes an early mention of hypersonics.

The point man for developing that capability is Michael Griffin, a former NASA administrator who is now the first-ever undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. So when he sat down with reporters July 12 to discuss a range of issues, it wasn’t a surprise hypersonic weaponry came up.

“My view is that this is not an advantage that we can concede to people who wish to be our adversaries,” he said bluntly when asked about the systems. “And there is no reason why we should.”

Here are three key points from Griffin that show his thinking as he helps craft America’s way forward with the technology.

 

[bring_it_on]

DOD seeks congressional OK to shift $4.3B, offers new details about hypersonic strike projects

The Office of the Secretary of Defense wants to shift an additional $159.5 million into the Conventional Prompt Strike program, including $40 million to support plans for eventual serial manufacturing of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). The Pentagon is notionally considering an initial production rate of five hypersonic glide vehicles a year, according to the document. “Funds are required to transition CPS HGV design to multiple contractors utilizing affordability/producibility enhancements,” the documents states.

In addition, the program -- which is set to be transferred to the Navy for management beginning in 2020 -- seeks $34.5 million to improve U.S. industrial capacity to produce a Thermal Protection System for the HGV. "The main issue is the lack of autoclaves (high-temperature and pressure ovens) in the curing/bonding process of the carbon-carbon composite materials used to produce the [Thermal Protection System]," according to the budget document.

The Conventional Prompt Strike program also seeks $65 million in FY-18 as a down payment on a $170 million new-start program for an accelerated demonstration of a land-launched hypersonics capability. The request would also add $20 million to improve test and evaluation infrastructure for "full-scale, hypersonic fight testing with a focus on Conventional Prompt Strike."

In a related effort, the Pentagon is seeking to shift nearly $50 million into a pair of projects that aim to support Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein's directive -- not previously reported -- to produce prototype hypersonic strike weapons by the end of 2021, according to the reprogramming request.

The service needs an additional $29 million in FY-18 for the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, a prototype hypersonic strike capability. "Funds will be used for required post-Preliminary Design Review work, long lead solid rocket motor parts and materials, wind tunnel testing" and more, according to the document. "Funding is needed to maintain the development and booster flight test schedule in order to meet the chief of staff of the Air Force's direction to provide hypersonic strike capability prototypes by the end of 2021," according to the reprogramming.

The budget document also reveals for the first time that the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon, or Hacksaw, will pair an Army-designed hypersonic boost glide vehicle with an off-the-shelf rocket to give the Air Force the ability to air-launch an ultrafast weapon as part of a new campaign to leverage the recent success of the Conventional Prompt Strike program

The service is seeking an additional $20 million in FY-18 for the Hacksaw program "to support the modification and integration of the Conventional Prompt Strike glide body into HCSW, as well as early transition of the CPS glide body design to the HCSW prime contractor for optimization and prototype production."

Lockheed Martin is the HCSW prime contractor.

The Army is seeking to shift $46 million to an advanced technology development account for a new-start project as part of the service's campaign to improve its artillery portfolio. The service estimates the five-year cost of this project to be $392 million. "Funds are required for the Deep Strike Cannon Artillery System effort within the Long Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team's charter," the document states. "The accelerated project objective aims to develop long-range armament technologies for weapons to support potential deep strike capabilities from future cannon artillery systems."

 

[bobbymike]

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/7/18/raytheon-close-to-inking-deal-for-new-hypersonic-weapon

FARNBOROUGH, United Kingdom — Raytheon is nearing an agreement with the Defense Department to build a new weapon that can travel at speeds greater than Mach 5, a company executive said July 18.

The contractor was recently selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create the next tactical boost glide system, said Tom Bussing, Raytheon’s vice president for advanced missile systems. “We’re in negotiations with them now … [and] we hope to be on contract here in the next several months,” he said during a meeting with reporters at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Alarmed by Chinese and Russian efforts to acquire their own capabilities, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin has made developing these types of weapons his top technical priority. In addition to their high speeds, the platforms can be highly maneuverable and pose a major challenge to traditional missile defense systems, according to experts.

Pentagon spending on the technology is ramping up. In April, the Air Force announced that Lockheed Martin had been awarded a contract with a potential value of nearly $1 billion to develop a new air-launched weapon for the service.

Raytheon could finish developing the new tactical boost glide system within several years, depending on funding and the schedule chosen by the Defense Department, Bussing said.

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.stripes.com/news/military-services-to-work-together-to-speed-hypersonic-weapon-development-1.539431?utm_source=RC+Defense+Morning+Recon&utm_campaign=c21fb713b5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_26_01_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_694f73a8dc-c21fb713b5-81812733

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military’s services will work together to boost development of ultra-high speed weapons capable of penetrating the most advanced air-defense systems in the world, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Wednesday.

Wilson, Army Secretary Mark Esper and Navy Secretary Richard Spencer signed an agreement in recent weeks to co-develop a prototype hypersonic missile, Wilson told an audience at the Washington Post. The Pentagon has worked for more than a decade to design and build hypersonic weapons capable of traveling in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Wilson said she believes by working with the other military services, a prototype weapon could be tested by 2020 or 2021, significantly earlier than Pentagon officials had previously publicly said such a trial would be expected.

 

[flateric]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/05/26/going-hypersonic-raytheon/Qnrg2YJUdMo2SXiVphoBaO/story.html
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/05/26/going-hypersonic-raytheon/Qnrg2YJUdMo2SXiVphoBaO/igraphic.html?p1=Article_Graphic

 

[bobbymike]

https://news.usni.org/2018/07/28/pentagon-sells-defense-industry-on-hypersonics

Hypersonic missiles – weapons traveling more than five times the speed of sound toward targets on land, in the air and at sea — are suddenly being touted by defense contractors as a promising revenue source, industry analysts heard during the second quarter financial results season.

Hypersonic missiles were described as an exciting new business line for Northrop Grumman to consider, Kathy Warden, chief operating officer, told Wall Street analysts during a conference call. Warden, who was recently tapped to become chief executive when current CEO Wes Bush retires next year, was detailing the benefits of Northrop Grumman’s $9.2 billion purchase of aerospace and technology company Orbital ATK. The deal was finalized in June.

Now called Innovation Systems, the Orbital business line, Warden said, “Expands the Northrop Grumman portfolio into hypersonics. We have traditionally been counter hypersonics, but this expands us into weapons systems. This significantly expands our portfolio of offerings to our customers.”

 

[Grey Havoc]

And where do they think they are going to get the workforce in the immediate future for said 'exciting new business line'?

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/farnborough/2018/07/27/the-us-air-forces-top-acquisition-exec-talks-hypersonic-prototypes-and-more/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com

You mentioned hypersonics as another area that involves prototyping. Can you say more about that?

Hypersonics is an area that I’m very passionate about. I feel like we need to not fall behind any country in this domain. And it was an area, coming in from SCO, I really wanted to dive into these prototyping efforts and see is there anything that we can do to speed them up.

And in fact, there is. This is another example of another program where the rapid authorities appear to make a big difference on how quickly you can go. But the big difference is really shifting the program so that it embraces the potential for failure. You saw this a lot from me at my last job. Failure is very much an option, and as a matter of fact, if we’re going to fail and we do it early in a program, we’ve probably learned something valuable that we need to understand before progressing

 

[marauder2048]

And where do they think they are going to get the workforce in the immediate future for said 'exciting new business line'?

Part of the reason Lockheed won sole-source on the AGM-183A (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon) was the maturity
of the workforce they and NG had assembled for TBG.

 

[seruriermarshal]

There aren't any news from AGM-183A , Seems like it is into a black project .

 

[seruriermarshal]

Hypersonic flight on the horizon

19 May 2016

Travelling from Sydney to London in less than two hours is no longer a farfetched concept following a successful hypersonic test flight conducted by an international team, including University of Queensland researchers and students.

The experimental rocket, called HiFiRE 5B, hit targeted speeds of Mach 7.5 (9,200kmph) and reached a height of 278 kilometres from earth, after being launched from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia.

Researchers from UQ, Defence Science and Technology Group, the US Air Force Research Laboratory, Boeing and HiFiRE (Hypersoic International Flight Research Experimentation Program) were involved in the project.

Professor Michael Smart from UQ’s School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering said the flight placed the Australian aerospace industry on the international stage.

“UQ is pleased to be part of a group of highly skilled individuals doing cutting edge research,” he said.

"We’re excited by the contributions this and future HIFiRE flights will make to the advancement of hypersonic flight technology.”

HiFiRE 5B is one of 10 experimental flights as part of the international collaboration which investigates the physical phenomenon of flying faster than five times the speed of sound.

“The knowledge gained from these experiments will be applied to develop future flight vehicles and testing of advanced air-breathing hypersonic propulsion engines, known as scramjets,” Professor Smart said.

Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky said hypersonic flight has the potential to provide immense social and economic benefits.

“The success of this test launch takes us one step closer to the realisation of hypersonic flight,” Dr Zelinsky said.

“It is a game-changing technology identified in the 2016 Defence White Paper and could revolutionise global air travel, providing cost-effective access to space.”

The program is aimed at exploring the fundamental technologies critical to the realisation of sustained hypersonic flight.

Boeing’s chief scientist for hypersonics Kevin Bowcutt said the HiFiRE program will accelerate the development of operational hypersonic systems by producing valuable scientific flight data.

The HiFiRE team has already achieved some significant milestones such as the design, assembly and pre-flight testing of the hypersonic vehicles and the design of complex avionics and flight systems.

More test flights from Woomera are scheduled in 2017.

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2016/05/hypersonic-flight-horizon

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~jjewell/documents/AIAA-2017-3134.pdf

 

[GeorgeA]

Lockheed now has significant contracts for both major hypersonic strike programs: Missiles and Fire Control will develop the AGM-183A ARRW, while Space gets the HCSW. (ARRW evolved from DARPA's TBG.)

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/lockheed-martin-claims-both-usaf-hypersonic-programm-450968/

Would also suggest to our moderators that we break out AGM-183A content into its own topic in Missile Projects, now that it's an official USAF program of record.

Edit: modified to note HCSW is not an air-breathing system.