X-51A on B-52 pylon The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) commander Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello at the 2014 Air Force Association’s Ai...
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| X-51A on B-52 pylon |
He meant the High Speed Strike Weapon (HSSW), a hypersonic missile in early stage of development, which will provide a rapid strike capability and possibly also be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
AFRL studies have shown that hypersonic systems have the ability to fly at Mach 5 or 6, at very high-altitudes, and deploy a fast-response weapons system capable of flying over 500 nautical miles in less than 10 minutes. This, he said, provides the warfighter with more energy on target while using a smaller warhead.
“What first put hypersonics on the map was our X-51 that flew in May of last year and it was an aviation milestone,” Masiello said. “It flew (under scramjet power) for more than 200 seconds when the previous record was just seven seconds.”
The HSSW will be a Mach 5+ (hypersonic) velocity missile capable of holding fixed and relocatable targets (i.e., time critical targets) at risk from tactically relevant standoff distances in tactically relevant timelines. The demonstration program will integrate and flight test a demonstrator weapon accelerated by a booster to an appropriate Mach number/airspeed condition to allow for air breathing propulsion for the remainder of the mission.
Guidance and control systems will present the weapon to representative targets at lethal proximities and simulate detonation of a mock warhead and/or detonate a live warhead. As a minimum, lethal mechanisms compatible with the air vehicle will be evaluated in ground test.
The HSSW will feature technologies developed for the X-51A Waverider hypersonic demonstrator. The X-51A made it final flight on May 1, 2013, in which it traveled more than 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes reaching a peak speed of Mach 5.1.
Hypersonic flight, normally defined as beginning at Mach 5, presents unique technical challenges with heat and pressure, which make conventional turbine engines impractical. Producing thrust at hypersonic speeds with a scramjet engine has been compared to lighting a match in a hurricane and keeping it burning.
