• Zero tolerance mode in effect!

Гиперзвуковые самолёты и ракеты

ВВС и DARPA работают над созданием гиперзвукового преемника SR-71 с начала 2000-х годов, а в 2013 году ВВС США объявили, что они начали проектные работы на масштабном демонстраторе SR-72. С тех пор, однако, почти никаких сведений о программе не было.

В настоящее время Skunk Works подтвердили, что наземные испытания новейшего двигателя, являющегося комбинацией прямоточного воздушно-реактивного и ракетного двигателей, были проведены с 2013 по 2017 год. Lockheed с 2006 г. сотрудничает с Aerojet Rocketdyne, чтобы создать гиперзвуковой двигатель с комбинированным циклом. Теперь заявлено, что они начинают полномасштабную разработку летательного аппарата, который можно или пилотировать, или управлять дистанционно. Согласно данным Aviation Week, этот FRV будет иметь размер F-22.
Skunk Works Hints At SR-72 Demonstrator Progress
Jun 6, 2017Guy Norris | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
  • sr-72rendering-lockheedmartin.jpg

    Lockheed Martin

    DENVER, Colorado—Four years after revealing plans to develop a Mach 6 strike and reconnaissance aircraft, Lockheed Martin says hypersonic technologies are now sufficiently mature to enable progress towards a flight demonstrator.

    The company’s secretive Skunk Works unit has been working since at least the early 2000s on the basic building blocks for an operational hypersonic vehicle and in 2013 revealed to Aviation Week it was developing a scaled demonstrator for the SR-72, a proposed successor to the U.S. Air Force’s long-retired Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. However, details on any subsequent progress have been scarce since this initial plan was unveiled.

    “We’ve been saying hypersonics is two years away for the last 20 years, but all I can say is the technology is mature and we, along with Darpa and the services, are working hard to get that capability into the hands of our warfighters as soon as possible,” says Rob Weiss, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president and general manager for Advanced Development Programs.

    Speaking to Aviation Week on the sidelines at the AIAA Aviation 2017 forum here, Weiss cautions, “I can’t give you any timelines or any specifics on the capabilities. It is all very sensitive. Some of our adversaries are moving along these lines pretty quickly and it is important we stay quiet about what is going on. We can acknowledge the general capability that’s out there, but any program specifics are off limits.”

    However, Weiss hints that work on a combined cycle propulsion system and other key advances needed for a viable hypersonic vehicle are reaching readiness levels sufficient for incorporation into some form of demonstrator. Following critical ground demonstrator tests from 2013 through 2017, Lockheed Martin is believed to be on track to begin development of an optionally piloted flight research vehicle (FRV) starting as early as next year. The FRV is expected to be around the same size as an F-22 and powered by a full-scale, combined cycle engine.

    While no specific details have been revealed, it is known that Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne have been teamed since 2006 on work to integrate an off-the-shelf turbine with a scramjet to power an aircraft with a combined cycle propulsion system from standstill to Mach 6 plus. The development built on work begun earlier under the Air Force/Darpa HTV-3X reusable hypersonic demonstrator, which was cancelled in 2008 but went a step further to integrate a high-speed turbine engine. The HTV-3X concept was an outgrowth of Darpa’s Falcon program, which included development of small launch vehicles, common aero vehicles and a hypersonic cruise vehicle.

    “The combined cycle work is still occurring and obviously a big breakthrough in the air-breathing side of hypersonics is the propulsion system,” Weiss adds. “So this is not just on combined cycle but on other elements of propulsion system.”
    The technology of the “air breather has been matured and work is continuing on those capabilities to demonstrate that they are ready to go and be fielded,” he adds.

    Depending on progress with the FTV, which would fly in the early 2020s, Lockheed Martin has previously said the follow-on step would be development of a full-scale, twin-engine SR-72. Built to roughly the same proportions as the SR-71, the larger vehicle would enter flight test in the late 2020s.
  • Skunk Works Reveals SR-71 Successor Plan
    Integrated propulsion breakthrough key to Skunk Works' hypersonic SR-72 concept
    Nov 1, 2013 Guy Norris | Aviation Week & Space Technology
Ever since Lockheed's unsurpassed SR-71 Blackbird was retired from U.S. Air Force service almost two decades ago, the perennial question has been: Will it ever be succeeded by a new-generation, higher-speed aircraft and, if so, when?

That is, until now. After years of silence on the subject, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has revealed exclusively to AW&ST details of long-running plans for what it describes as an affordable hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike platform that could enter development in demonstrator form as soon as 2018. Dubbed the SR-72, the twin-engine aircraft is designed for a Mach 6 cruise, around twice the speed of its forebear, and will have the optional capability to strike targets.

Guided by the U.S. Air Force's long-term hypersonic road map, the SR-72 is designed to fill what are perceived by defense planners as growing gaps in coverage of fast-reaction intelligence by the plethora of satellites, subsonic manned and unmanned platforms meant to replace the SR-71. Potentially dangerous and increasingly mobile threats are emerging in areas of denied or contested airspace, in countries with sophisticated air defenses and detailed knowledge of satellite movements.

AW_11_04_2013_3829.jpg

SR-72 technologies, including the TBCC, will be proven on an optionally piloted, F-22-sized flight-research vehicle. (Credit: Lockheed Martin Concept)
A vehicle penetrating at high altitude and Mach 6, a speed viewed by Lockheed Martin as the “sweet spot” for practical air-breathing hypersonics, is expected to survive where even stealthy, advanced subsonic or supersonic aircraft and unmanned vehicles might not. Moreover, an armed ISR platform would also have the ability to strike targets before they could hide.

Although there has been evidence to suggest that work on various classified successors to the SR-71, or some of its roles, has been attempted, none of the tantalizing signs have materialized into anything substantial. Outside of the black world, this has always been relatively easy to explain. Though few question the compelling military imperative for high speed ISR capability, the astronomical development costs have made the notion a virtual nonstarter.

But now Lockheed Martin believes it has the answer. “The Skunk Works has been working with Aerojet Rocketdyne for the past seven years to develop a method to integrate an off-the-shelf turbine with a scramjet to power the aircraft from standstill to Mach 6 plus,” says Brad Leland, portfolio manager for air-breathing hypersonic technologies. “Our approach builds on HTV-3X, but this extends a lot beyond that and addresses the one key technical issue that remained on that program: the high-speed turbine engine,” he adds, referring to the U.S. Air Force/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) reusable hypersonic demonstrator canceled in 2008.

The concept of a reusable hypersonic vehicle was an outgrowth of Darpa's Falcon program, which included development of small launch vehicles, common aero vehicles (CAV) and a hypersonic cruise vehicle (HCV). As structural and aerodynamic technologies for both the CAV and HCV needed testing, Lockheed Martin was funded to develop a series of unpowered hypersonic test vehicles (HTV).

In the midst of these developments, as part of a refocus on space in 2004, NASA canceled almost all hypersonic research, including work on the X-43C combined-cycle propulsion demonstrator. The Darpa HTV effort was therefore extended to include a third HTV, the powered HTV-3X, which was to take off from a runway on turbojet power, accelerate to Mach 6 using a scramjet and return to land.

Despite never progressing to what Leland describes as a planned HTV-3X follow-on demonstrator that “never was,” called the Blackswift, the conceptual design work led to “several key accomplishments which we didn't advertise too much,” he notes. “It produced an aircraft configuration that could controllably take off, accelerate through subsonic, supersonic, transonic and hypersonic speeds. It was controllable and kept the pointy end forward,” adds Leland.

AW_11_04_2013_3828.jpg

Although sharing roughly the same range and dimensions of the Blackbird, at Mach 6 the SR-72 will be almost twice as fast. (Credit: Lockheed Martin Concept)
Fundamental lessons were learned, particularly about flight control systems that could maintain stability through the transonic speed regime. Lockheed Martin's work proved the configuration could “take off without departing,” Leland notes. “We were able to drive down the takeoff speed and keep it stable and controllable. We proved all that in a whole series of wind-tunnel tests.”

Just as importantly, the Skunk Works design team developed a methodology for integrating a working, practical turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) propulsion system. “Before that, it was all cartoons,” Leland says. “We actually developed a way of transforming it from a turbojet to a ramjet and back. We did a lot of tests to prove it out, including the first mode-transition demonstration.” The Skunk Works conducted subscale ground tests of the TBCC under the Facet program, which combined a small high-Mach turbojet with a dual-mode ramjet/scramjet, and the two sharing an axisymmetric inlet and nozzle.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's parallel HiSTED (High-Speed Turbine Engine Demonstration) program essentially failed to produce a small turbojet capable of speeds up to Mach 4 in a TBCC. “The high-speed turbine engine was the one technical issue remaining. Frankly, they just weren't ready,” recalls Leland. This left the Skunk Work designers with a familiar problem: how to bridge the gap between the Mach 2.5 maximum speed of current-production turbine engines and the Mach 3-3.5 takeover speed of the ramjet/scramjet. “We call it the thrust chasm around Mach 3,” he adds.

Although further studies were conducted after the demise of the HTV-3X under the follow-on Darpa Mode-Transition program, that fell by the wayside, too, after completion of a TBCC engine model in 2009-10. So, Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne “sat down as two companies and asked ourselves, 'Can we make it work? What are we still missing?'” says Leland. “A Mach 4 turbine is what gets you there, and we've been working with Rocketdyne on this problem for the last seven years.”

Finally, he says, the two achieved a design breakthrough that will enable the development of a viable hypersonic SR-71 replacement. “We have developed a way to work with an off-the-shelf fighter-class engine like the F100/F110,” notes Leland. The work, which includes modifying the ramjet to adapt to a lower takeover speed, is “the key enabler to make this airplane practical, and to making it both near-term and affordable,” he explains. “Even if the HiSTED engines were successful, and even if Blackswift flew, we'd have had to scale up those tiny turbines, and that would have cost billions.”

Lockheed will not disclose its chosen method of bridging the thrust chasm. The company funded research and development, and “our approach is proprietary,” says Leland, adding that he cannot go into details. Several concepts are known, however, to be ripe for larger-scale testing, including various pre-cooler methods that mass-inject cooler flow into the compressor to boost performance. Other concepts that augment the engine power include the “hyperburner,” an augmentor that starts as an afterburner and transitions to a ramjet as Mach number increases. Aerojet, which acquired Rocketdyne earlier this year, has also floated the option of a rocket-augmented ejector ramjet as another means of providing seamless propulsion to Mach 6.

Although details of the proposed thrust-augmentation concept remain under wraps, Leland says a large part of a successfully integrated mode-transition design is the inlet. “That's because you have to keep two compressor systems [ramjet and turbine] working stably. Both will run in parallel,” he adds.

Lockheed has run scaled tests on components. “The next step would be to put it through a series of tests or critical demonstrations,” Leland says. “We are ready for those critical demonstrations, and we could be ready to do such a demonstration aircraft in 2018. That would be the beginning of building and running complete critical demonstrations. As of now, there are no technologies to be invented. We are ready to proceed—the only thing holding us back is the perception that [hypersonics] is always expensive, large and exotic.”

The 2018 time line is determined by the potential schedule for the high-speed strike weapon (HSSW), a U.S. hypersonic missile program taking shape under the Air Force and Darpa (see page 36). “We can do critical demonstrations between now and then, but we don't believe it will be until HSSW flies and puts to bed any questions about this technology, and whether we can we truly make these, that the confidence will be there.” In spite of the recent success of demonstration efforts, such as the X-51A Waverider, Leland observes that “hypersonics still has a bit of a giggle factor.”

The timing also dovetails with the Air Force hypersonic road map, which calls for efforts to support development of a hypersonic strike weapon by 2020 and a penetrating, regional ISR aircraft by 2030 (AW&ST Nov. 26, 2012, p. 40). Key requirements for the high-speed ISR/strike aircraft is the ability to survive a “day without space”—communication and navigation satellites—and to be able to penetrate denied areas. With a TBCC propulsion system, the Air Force has pushed for increasingly greater speeds since defining Mach 4 at initial planning meetings in December 2010. The latest requirements are thought to be at least a Mach 5-plus cruise speed and operation from a conventional runway.

The path to the SR-72 would begin with an optionally piloted flight research vehicle (FRV), measuring around 60 ft. long and powered by a single, but full-scale, propulsion flowpath. “The demonstrator is about the size of the F-22, single-engined and could fly for several minutes at Mach 6,” says Leland. The outline plan for the operational vehicle, the SR-72, is a twin-engine unmanned aircraft over 100 ft. long (see artist's concept on page 20). “It will be about the size of the SR-71 and have the same range, but have twice the speed,” he adds. The FRV would start in 2018 and fly in 2023. “We would be ready to launch the SR-72 shortly after and could be in service by 2030,” Leland says.

According to Al Romig, Skunk Works engineering and advanced systems vice president, “speed is the new stealth.” This is perhaps just as well, given the inherent challenges involved in reducing the signature of hypersonic vehicles. With large engine inlets and aerodynamic requirements overriding most considerations, the SR-72 concept shows little in the way of stealthy planform alignment. Although the surfaces could be coated with radar-absorbing material, the requirement for thermal protection along sharp leading edges is likely to be a complicating factor. Like the HTV-3X, the vehicle may also feature hot metallic leading edges and a “hot/warm” metallic primary structure designed to handle the high thermal flux loads.

The deep nacelles, mounted close inboard, indicate the “over-under combined cycle” engine configuration outlined for the HTV-3X, as well as integrated inward-turning turbo-ramjet inlets. “One of the differences with this demonstrator compared to the HTV-3X is that with that, we were limited to small turbines with a low-drag design,” Leland says. “With fighter engines, we accelerate much more briskly. It's a significant improvement in adding margins. It is also very important [that] you have a common inlet and nozzle because of the significant amount of spillage drag in the inlet and the base drag in the nozzle.”

Aerodynamically, the forebody appears to be shaped for inlet compression at high speed, but without the characteristic stepped “wave-rider” configuration of the X-51A. “We are not advocates of wave riders,” Leland says. “We found that, in order for a wave rider to pay off, you have to be at cruise and be burning most of your fuel at cruise. But these designs burn most fuel as they accelerate, so you want an efficient vehicle that gets you to cruise. You end up with a vehicle that is hard to take off and land, has little fuel volume and high transonic drag.”

The planform is characterized by chines that blend into a sharply swept delta extending back roughly halfway along the hump-backed fuselage. The chine and delta are likely designed to provide increased directional stability as well as a larger amount of lift at high cruise speeds. Outboard of the engine inlets, the leading-edge angle abruptly aligns with the fuselage before the wing extends into a trapezoid. The angle of the cranked wing would provide vortex lift to assist with low-speed flight.

The SR-72 is being designed with strike capability in mind. “We would envision a role with over-flight ISR, as well as missiles,” Leland says. Being launched from a Mach 6 platform, the weapons would not require a booster, significantly reducing weight. The higher speed of the SR-72 would also give it the ability to detect and strike more agile targets. “Even with the SR-71, at Mach 3, there was still time to notify that the plane was coming, but at Mach 6, there is no reaction time to hide a mobile target. It is unavoidable ISR,” he adds. Lockheed envisages that once the FRV has completed its baseline demonstrator role, it could become a testbed for developing high-speed ISR technologies and supporting tests of the SR-72's weapons set, avionics and downlink systems.

“It is time to acknowledge the existence of the SR-72 because of the HSSW going forward,” says Leland. Together with the strategic “pivot to the Pacific,” the concept of high-speed ISR is “starting to gain traction,” he notes. “According to the hypersonic road map, the path to the aircraft is through the missile, so now it is time to get the critical demonstration going.” These would test individual elements of the propulsion system, which would then be integrated for the full-scale FRV evaluation.

“We have been continuing to invest company funds, and we are kind of at a point where the next steps would require large-scale testing, which would significantly increase the level of investment we've had to make to-date. Between Darpa and the Air Force, it would be highly likely they'd have to fund the next steps,” Leland says. The FRV will also give the Skunk Works a better idea on overall development costs, he adds.

As for rumors of an existing high-speed ISR aircraft, Leland is dismissive. “It's been almost 20 years since the SR-71 was retired. If there was a replacement, they've been hiding it pretty well,” he says.
 
http://aviationweek.com/paris-air-show-2017/raytheon-invests-technology-meet-hypersonic-threats
Raytheon Invests in Technology to Meet Hypersonic Threats
Jun 20, 2017 Guy Norris | ShowNews
raytheon-hypersonic.jpg

Raytheon artist’s rendering illustrates what a hypersonic missile could look like as it travels along the edge of Earth's atmosphere.

As China and Russia continue to demonstrate rapid progress in development of hypersonic strike weapons, the U.S.’s largest guided-missile company says technology to counter the threat is already achievable but that fielding a system requires sustained funding and a national sense of urgency.

“We are at a tipping point in hypersonics. It is the number one game changer today, and it’s a huge discriminator,” says Tom Bussing, vice president of Raytheon’s Advanced Missile Systems. Commenting to ShowNews on the eve of the Paris Air Show, Bussing says the relatively sudden rise of hypersonic strike capability in China and Russia “is a remarkable thing that has occurred, and it has fundamentally changed the nature of warfare.”

By developing a combination of boost-glide and air-breathing hypersonic weapons that can effectively defeat today’s strategic air and space defense systems, he says, China and Russia’s move is “destroying the triad-based” deterrence balance of power. The “triad” is the ability to deliver strategic nuclear weapons via land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), bombers, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The triple delivery method increases deterrence by ensuring the survival of sufficient forces to launch a second strike.

Citing China’s recent DF-ZF and Russia’s Yu-71/74 boost-glide vehicle developments, as well as various air-breathing waverider demonstrations in these countries, Bussing says, “I don’t think in my lifetime I have experienced anything quite like this number of adversaries that have tried to develop technologies designed to change another country’s behavior. China’s anti-ship developments are forcing us to move carrier strike groups further back, while the Russians are more opportunistic with the Yu-71 boost-glide weapon, which we believe to be nuclear.”

Both systems fly with depressed trajectories, “which are very difficult to engage,” he adds. “A typical ICBM flies a predictable trajectory, but boost-glide and air-breathing hypersonic weapons leverage aerodynamic forces and can hold an entire region at risk. There seems to be a rapid acceleration, and our peer adversaries have recognized the value of this and pushed forward.”

Raytheon is pouring its own resources into hypersonic weapons development as part of a broader portfolio-wide technology investment. Over the past four years US$500 million has been spent on a variety of technologies ranging from propulsion and sensor to advanced processors.

“Of that investment, a significant fraction is being applied to hypersonics,” says Bussing. “But the entire portfolio is playing in future hypersonic weapons as well as backward playing into existing systems.”

Although Raytheon is already known to be competing against Lockheed Martin under the joint DARPA/U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) research program, the company “also has a number of efforts ongoing in both boost-glide and air-breathing areas,” says Bussing. Hinting at the existence of other, classified, hypersonic weapon development efforts, he adds that Raytheon is active in a large number of programs, “99% of which we can’t talk about today. But in the last five years the air force has been proactively involved, as have the navy and army. In our case, we leverage Raytheon’s experience across many programs, and the assets are combined for different purposes.”

Technology that could be applicable to a variety of hypersonic weapons, and vice-versa, is being developed by Raytheon across a wide range of programs, says Bussing. These include the U.S. Army’s Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) program to develop a longer-range surface-to-surface weapon to replace the Army Tactical Missile System. Named DeepStrike, the three-year development will culminate in flight tests in 2020. The LRPF mission is “partially flown hypersonically, so a large part of our hypersonic work on TGB and HAWC can be applied to a program like this,” he adds.

Other, perhaps less obvious programs, like Raytheon’s Coyote UAV, are also helping future high-speed system developments through areas such as high-speed processing and autonomous networking. According to Bussing, other relevant technologies can be leveraged from Raytheon’s ballistic-missile kill-vehicle programs: sensing know-how from the Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) small-sat effort, and thermal management, propulsion and control from its high-speed missiles work.

“In the area of advanced weapons systems development, our nation has to stand up and continue to develop and transition these technologies to the combatant services. Given the progress being made elsewhere, it will be in our best interest to move forward rapidly with these systems,” he adds.
 
США и Австралия провели успешное испытание гиперзвуковой авиационной ракеты. Об этом сообщает The Independent.

По информации издания, ракета способна развивать скорость до 7700 миль в час — более 12 тысяч километров в час. Тестовый пуск состоялся на полигоне Вумера на юге Австралии. Как отметила министр обороны страны Мариз Пейн, испытание в рамках программы HiFIRE прошло 12 июля, при этом название ракеты не уточняется.

Стоимость проекта составляет 54 миллиона долларов. Это совместная программа ВВС США и Минобороны Австралии, в которой также участвуют компании Boeing и BAE Systems и Квинслендский университет. В австралийском подразделении BAE Systems отметили, что «успешные летные испытания были самым сложным из всех проведенных тестов HIFiRE на сегодняшний день».
 
«Экипажи самолетов-перехватчиков МиГ-31 авиабазы войск и сил на северо-востоке выполнили боевое упражнение по уничтожению крылатой ракеты летящей на высоте более 12 тысяч и скорости, в три раза превышающей скорость звука. Крылатая ракета была запущена из акватории Охотского моря с морского носителя», — рассказали в пресс-службе.
Три маха на высоте 12000 это около 900м/сек. То есть скрость мишени в районе максмилальной скорости Миг 31
 
Такой ответ:
ВВС США заключили с Lockheed Martin контракт на 928 миллионов долларов, предполагающий создание первой американской гиперзвуковой управляемой ракеты, сообщает FlightGlobal.
Новая ракета, предназначенная для истребителей и бомбардировщиков, должна перемещаться со скоростью более пяти чисел Маха, обладать высокой и оперативной точностью поражения, а также использовать глобальную и инерциальную системы навигации.
Новая ракета должна стать ответом США на гиперзвуковые разработки России и Китая. В тендере ВВС США, кроме Lockheed Martin, также участвовали Boeing, Northrop Grumman и Raytheon. Присуждение контракта Lockheed Martin означает, что Boeing теряет позиции лидера в области гиперзвуковых технологий в США, отмечает издание.
Например, в мае 2010 году состоялся первый полет экспериментального летательного аппарата Boeing X-51 Waverider, оснащенного гиперзвуковым прямоточным воздушно-реактивным двигателем Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61. В июне 2017 года Boeing в рамках программы HIFiRE (Hypersonic International Flight Research and Experimentation) испытал систему, состоящую из ракеты-носителя, выводящей разогнанный до гиперзвуковых скоростей глайдер.
 
http://aviationweek.com/defense/mda...m=email&elq2=367dc2bab0174659994027d8fd9e37df
Jun 26, 2018 Jen DiMascio | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is pursuing missile defense sensors to address one of the primary threats facing the nation —the one posed by hypersonic missiles—and has put together a proposal that, if funded, could be in place by 2025.

“We believe the hypersonic threat is real, based on what we have seen others demonstrate,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves said during a June 26 speech to the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute. “It is only a matter of time before it is operationalized. The question will be what will we have to prepare ourselves to mitigate or eliminate that threat five, six, seven years from now when it shows up. We have time to get started now.”

To that end, MDA has already moved out to build a plan for sensors that look from space to Earth and Earth to space, but some of those ideas have yet to be funded.

The agency already has midcourse discrimination sensors that will look out into space, such as the Long-Range Discrimination Radar that is expected to be operational by 2020 in Clear, Alaska.

“That requires you to do more than tracking,” Graves said. “You have to classify the target and then you have to discriminate the re-entry vehicle out from balloons, chaff or distractors.”

Another system, the Missile Defense Tracking System, would be positioned in space looking down at the Earth for the heat signature of a hypersonic threat, Greaves said. The idea is to continue to track the missile even if it is more sophisticated or the target grows dimmer. Hypersonic missiles do not fly in a predictable path the way that ballistic missiles do, and would need more continuous monitoring.

Those sensors will pass information to the battle management/command-and-control system and may call for fast interceptors or a new interceptor to meet the hypersonic threat.

MDA has been working on the issue for a long time and has developed the architectures that are needed to address the threat—from the types of optics and infrared sensors that need to be deployed to designate a target to the focal plane arrays that can say what size or sensitivity the threat would be.

“The number of systems that need to be on orbit to maintain custody of the threat—that work is pretty much done,” Greaves said, adding that he wants to make decisions later this year on a demonstration architecture.

Now, the idea is to work with industry. MDA has reached out to up to 10 different entities that want to pursue an architecture, Greaves said. For example, the agency is working with Darpa on its Blackjack program that would attach upgradable payloads to commercial low Earth orbit satellites. Other ideas involve systems in geostationary orbit or medium Earth orbit.

Once MDA has funding, it can build a competition. For fiscal 2019, MDA has asked for $73 million to study the issue in an unfunded requirements list provided to Congress.

Lawmakers are in the midst of building spending bills for fiscal 2019. Tom Karako, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if the Pentagon’s still-pending ballistic missile defense review endorsed the idea of a space sensor layer, lawmakers might want to reprogram funding for the coming fiscal year.

Greaves cautioned that MDA wants to go slowly at first to make sure technologies are mature enough to avoid problems on past big-ticket space programs including the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite and the Space Based Infrared System. “To go fast sometimes, you need to go slow early on,” he said.
 
Даже так, что-то напоминает (упоминание главы государства к оружию):

Раскрыты подробности испытаний ракеты Путина

Гиперзвуковые ракеты из состава новейшего комплекса "Кинжал" испытают на дальнем бомбардировщике Ту-22М3, сообщил ТАСС источник в российском оборонно-промышленном комплексе.

"Кинжал" испытают на Ту-22М3", — сказал собеседник агентства.

Он уточнил, что "на одном бомбардировщике будут испытываться сразу несколько гиперзвуковых ракет". Сроки начала испытаний источник не назвал.
ТАСС не располагает официальным подтверждением этой информации.
 
По-моему, еще не обсуждалось на форуме - или я пропустил? :oops:
https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1600837/
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $480,000,000 undefinitized contract for air-launched rapid response weapon critical design review and test and production readiness support. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2021. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8681-18-C-0021).

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...-claims-both-usaf-hypersonic-programm-450968/
Lockheed Martin claims both USAF hypersonic programmes
The US Air Force has selected Lockheed Martin to rapidly develop and field both new hypersonic missiles launched as a response to surprise developments in high-speed weapons by China and Russia, newly-released acquisition documents confirm.

The service already announced a $928 million award in April deal for Lockheed’s Missiles and Space company to develop the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW, pronounced “Hacksaw”).

But a new document reveals that the USAF awarded a separate deal to Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control division in July 2017 to rapidly develop and field the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced “Arrow”).

The ARRW, now assigned the designation AGM-183A, evolves from the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) programme launched in 2014 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). By using a rocket to boost the missile to very high altitudes, the unpowered ARRW then glides down to lower altitudes at speeds up to Mach 20.

Although Lockheed won the $780 million ARRW contract more than a year ago, the USAF was forced to re-open the competition this summer. The original deal was structured as an extension to a DARPA contract for TBG. The USAF later decided to restructure the terms using the service’s own acquisition process. That decision, however, required the USAF to re-consider the two bidders that had already been disqualified under the DARPA programme.

Приквел истории:
http://www.airforcemag.com/Features...-928-Million-Hypersonic-Missile-Contract.aspx
Lockheed Martin Gets $928 Million Hypersonic Missile Contract
4/19/2018
The Air Force has picked Lockheed Martin Space of Huntsville, Ala. to prototype the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon under a contract valued at $928 million.
...
In describing the HCSW, the AFLCMC [Air Force Life Cycle Management Center] said the weapon would provide “a prompt [hypersonic/hypervelocity] precision strike capability against high-value, time-critical fixed and relocatable surface targets in a single or multi-theater, challenged [A2/AD] environment. It will utilize Global Positioning System … and Inertial Guidance System … for navigation and terminal guidance with a government-furnished … warhead.”
 
я уже запутался в ворохе проектов. собственно уже все три идеи - прямоточка, глайдер, баллистика
 
Разведка США распускает слухи
Причиной аварий на испытаниях гиперзвуковой ракеты "Авангард" - разрушение в атмосфере. Российская Федерация не может найти источник углеловолокна для создания критически важных компонентов, необходимых для производства гиперзвуковой ракеты
Россия столкнулась с нехваткой достаточно надежного материала для разработки гиперзвуковой ракеты «Авангард», утверждает телеканал CNBC. Ранее Минобороны заявляло, что российские предприятия начали ее серийное производство

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Боевой блок гиперзвукового ракетного комплекса «Авангард» (Фото: Пресс-служба Минобороны России / ТАСС)

Россия не может найти источник для производства важнейших компонентов из углеродного волокна для гиперзвуковой ракеты «Авангард». Об этом сообщает телеканал CNBC со ссылкой на источники, знакомые с докладами американской разведки. Как отмечает CNBC, эта информация противоречит заявлениям российских властей о том, что российское гиперзвуковое оружие уже запущено в серийное производство.

Москва считает, что доступное сейчас углеволокно недостаточно надежно. Но, по словам источника CNBC, программа разработки гиперзвукового оружия остается приоритетом и все еще может быть завершена к 2020 году. Следующие испытания изделия запланированы на декабрь, сказал источник.

«Корпус гиперзвукового аппарата не может выдержать нагрева при повторном входе (в плотные слои атмосферы. — РБК), из-за чего внутренние системы перестают работать, — объяснил источник CNBC. — Поэтому русским нужен лучший материал, в ближайшее время у них будут испытания, и они не думают, что используемый сейчас материал обеспечивает достаточную теплозащиту».

В Москве рассчитывают, что компоненты из углеволокна будут произведены в течение 12 месяцев, добавил собеседник телеканала.

«Очевидно, что попытки России разработать высокотехнологичное оружие — это то, за чем мы следим. Впрочем, пока что мы видели больше громких заявлений об успехах, чем доказательств», — сказал представитель Пентагона Эрик Пэхон. Он добавил, что США, в свою очередь, продолжают улучшать собственные возможности по противодействию «возможным угрозам, которые может представлять Россия».

Президент Владимир Путин в послании Федеральному собранию 1 марта представил разрабатываемые новинки российского вооружения. В частности, он представил ракетный комплекс с гиперзвуковым крылатым блоком «Авангард» и гиперзвуковой авиационно-ракетный комплекс «Кинжал». В июле Минобороны России сообщило, что предприятия ОПК начали серийное производство гиперзвукового ракетного комплекса «Авангард».
Автор: Павел Казарновский.
 
DARPA pursues materials, architecture to cool hypersonic vehicles

To address the challenge DARPA has initiated the Materials, Architectures, and Characterization for Hypersonics (MACH) programme. The programme seeks to develop and demonstrate new design and material solutions for sharp, shape-stable, high heat flux capable leading edge systems for hypersonic vehicles travelling more than five times the speed of sound.

DARPA is seeking expertise in thermal engineering and design, advanced computational materials development, architected materials design, fabrication and testing (including net shape fabrication of high temperature metals, ceramics, and their composites), hypersonic leading-edge design and performance, and advanced thermal protection systems. DARPA has specified that it does not want research “that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice”.

The MACH programme will comprise two technical areas. The first area aims to develop and mature a fully integrated passive thermal management system to cool leading edges based on scalable net-shape manufacturing and advanced thermal design. The second technical area will focus on next-generation hypersonic materials research, applying modern high-fidelity computation capabilities to develop new passive and active thermal management concepts, coatings, and materials for future cooled hypersonic leading edge applications.

Bill Carter, Program Manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO), said, “For decades people have studied cooling the hot leading edges of hypersonic vehicles but haven’t been able to demonstrate practical concepts in flight.

“The key is developing scalable materials architectures that enable mass transport to spread and reject heat. In recent years we’ve seen advances in thermal engineering and manufacturing that could enable the design and fabrication of very complex architectures not possible in the past. If successful, we could see a breakthrough in mitigating aerothermal effects at the leading edge that would enhance hypersonic performance,” he added.

The DSO will convene a Proposers Day meeting on 22 January 2019 to advise potential proposers on the objectives of the MACH programme.
https://www.janes.com/article/85391/darpa-pursues-materials-architecture-to-cool-hypersonic-vehicles
 
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