US (& Allies) Hypersonic developments and missiles

Correct

Mach 4 ain’t no hypersonic, that's the speed of old Kh-22 Kitchen missile from 1962

PapaDragon wrote:
Correct

Mach 4 ain’t no hypersonic, that's the speed of old Kh-22 Kitchen missile from 1962

They stole that from the US!! Back in 2025!!

The Kh-22M had a speed of about mach 3 at about 22km altitude... but being rocket propelled I would say mach 3 near the end of its flight when most of the fuel had burned up.

That's fast but its not hypersonic so I'm sure the figures are wrong

The question is about what sort of test it was... an engine test would be bad, but a manouvering test with lots of high g turning and corkscrew manouvering and mach 4 is not that bad... but it shows they are not hugely advanced in the testing.

Creepy Joe said the Russians copied their technology... based on this information I would say I suspect not.

GarryB wrote:Creepy Joe said the Russians copied their technology... based on this information I would say I suspect not.

The Russians stole US hypersonics like the Chinese stole US 5G.
i.e. not really.

Max. speed of the Kh-22 is M 4,6 (4.900km/h)

Nope.

The Kh-22 and Kh-22M are mach 3 rocket powered missiles.

During the 1990s the Russians offered it as a testbed for scramjet and other engine mount testing (ie put your test scramjet motor on the nose and launch it to mach 4.5, and then run your scramjet motor for testing) with a special version with most of the guts missing.

Also in the late 1990s they improved both rocket motors on the weapon to improve the flight speed of the weapon to Mach 4.5 and increased its range by double to over 800km, but although looking identical it is called Kh-32 now.

The Kh-22M also flew at about 22km altitude, while the Kh-32 operates at about 40km altitude...

The US has cancelled its PrSM program which was supposed to produce a hypersonic missile like the Iskander-M. Various US flapping
jaws quickly claimed they did not need such a system. Yeah, right.

This is another data point supporting the empirical theory that US hypersonic tech is sub par and far from real world realization.
All those demonstrators dating decades into the past appear not to have been sufficient to actually allow the US to develop
operational missiles like the Iskander-M. The posturing about not needing the PrSM is a stupid joke. Either the US military
is totally incompetent and can't even engage in project planning and specification of needs, or the contractors couldn't deliver.
The latter is vastly more likely.

As far as the vaunted US hypersonic missile system that is supposed to make all Russians obsolete, it looks like posturing hot air
that will not even arrive before 2030. But Russia plans to replace Iskander-M with new systems in the coming 5 years. Looks
like the US has a real hypersonic missile gap. But this is not 1960 and there will not be any come from behind wins.

US Air Force detonates warhead for ARRW hypersonic missile. No missile launch though.

“The first-of-its-kind test for the air-to-ground, rocket-powered, high-altitude, hypersonic missile collected data on the lethality of the unique weapon,” says the USAF. In particular, the service says it was interested in gathering data on the unique “shape of the warhead”.

The USAF did not explain how the detonation test was performed, but the explosion appears not to be part of a hypersonic missile launch. The USAF attempted to fly an inert version of ARRW for the first time in April, but the test missile’s flight was aborted after a problem with its launch sequence. The service has planned another flight test this month.

https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/us-air-force-detonates-warhead-for-arrw-hypersonic-missile-for-first-time/144499.article

I wonder how many years will they manage to fill with irrelevant news, doing their best to look as if their hypersonic weapons were "practically there"

Some interesting posts in the comments


Hermeus has signed a $60 million U.S. Air Force partnership for the flight testing of its first Mach 5 aircraft – ‘Quarterhorse’.

The firm say that Quarterhorse will validate the company’s proprietary turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine, based around the GE J85 turbojet engine, and is the first in a line of autonomous high-speed aircraft.

By the end of the flight test campaign say the firm, Quarterhorse will be the fastest reusable aircraft in the world and the first of its kind to fly a TBCC engine.

Additionally, the firm say that the award was made under the AFWERX Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) program led by the U.S. Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate (PE) as a follow-on to a Phase II SBIR contract.

The collaboration also includes support from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

“Small business partnership is recognized by the U.S. Air Force as an important component to driving innovation. Reducing risk in high speed transport technologies, as we are doing with this contract, provides near-term and long-term benefits to both the U.S. Air Force and the defense industrial base” said Lt. Col. Joshua Burger, the Vector Initiative program manager who is spearheading the effort.

“We are very excited to see Hermeus translate their demonstrated successes in engine prototyping into flight systems.”

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/u-s-air-force-to-test-quarterhorse-autonomous-mach-5-jet/

The Name sounds odd... sounds like they couldn't decided on Hermes or Perseus... so they went for both...

Arrow wrote:The USA successfully tested the scramjet hypersonic missile. The missile was flying at a speed of 5M. Is this some advancement in American hypersonic weapons? Already the X51 flew many years ago and still did not have a hypersonic weapon. For now, this is just a demonstrator like X 51.
https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2021-09-27

They will get there, no doubt about it

But funny part is that in doing so they are helping make their entire military doctrine obsolete

The appearance of a promising hypersonic missile system LRHW of the US Army

October 6th, 23:19

On October 5, 2021, the US Department of Defense released images of the 5th Battalion (Division) of the 3rd Artillery Regiment of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the US Army stationed at the Lewis McCord Joint Base in Washington State receiving training samples and an experimental first battery for training to the operation of the LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) hypersonic missile system, which was recently officially named Dark Eagle. The pictures show several mass-dimensional models of transport and launch containers for LRHW missiles, as well as two towed launchers on semi-trailers transported by Oshkosh HEMTT A4 M983A4 Patriot (8x8) tractors.

It is indicated that the pictures were taken on 14 (transfer of two launchers) and 15 (transfer of mass-dimensional models of transport and launch containers of missiles) September 2021, while it is stated that the transfer should end with a ceremony at the Lewis-McCord joint base on October 7.

Both delivered launchers of the experimental first battery of the LRHW complex have their own names Stormbreaker and Hyperion. Each launcher carries two transport and launch containers for LRHW missiles.

Recall that the ground-based missile system LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) Dark Eagle isin fact, a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile AUR (All-Up-Round), equipped with a universal guided maneuverable hypersonic warhead Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) performed by Block 1. The firing range of the complex is officially declared at 1725 miles (2775 km) ...

The LRHW program is led by Lockheed Martin Corporation, working in conjunction with the US Army Hypersonic Project Office; part of the US Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, Sandia National Laboratories ( Sandia National Laboratory) of the US Department of Energy and with the participation of the US Missile Defense Agency and Dynetics Technical Solutions (DTS), Integration Innovation Inc. (i3), Verity Integrated Systems, Martinez & Turek, and Penta Research.

Sandia National Laboratories originally developed both the main components of the LRHW system - C-HGB and AUR, but now the lead role in R&D has been transferred to Lockheed Martin. The C-HGB hypersonic warhead is generally being developed to equip the weapons systems of the three types of American armed forces (army, air force and navy). The AUR missile will also be used by the US Navy.

The AUR missile has two solid-propellant stages with a hull diameter of 34.5 inches (887 mm), and in general, the LRHW complex weighs in an equipped state. The rocket will be launched from a transport and launch container about 10 m long with a two-container ground towed mobile launcher with an Oshkosh HEMTT A4 M983A4 Patriot (8x8) tractor. The launcher semi-trailer is a modified M870 semi-trailer of the Patriot air defense missile launcher. The missile system will use the standard American missile and artillery fire control system AFATDS in performance 7.0 for fire control. The standard battery of the LRHW system will include four dual-container launchers and one fire control vehicle.

Presumably, the C-HGB gyrosonic warhead is based on the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) experimental hypersonic warhead developed by Sandia National Laboratories (AHW), which was flight tested in 2011 and 2012 and reached a speed of 8M. For the C-HGB, the speed of "more than 5M" is officially announced so far.

Two test launches of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) universal guided maneuverable gliding warhead were carried out on October 30, 2017 and March 19, 2020 using the STARS-4 solid-propellant launch vehicle specially developed by Sandia National Laboratories .

In August 2019, the US Army awarded contractsLockheed Martin in the amount of $ 347 million for the development and creation of a prototype LRHW, and Dynetics Technical Solutions (DTS) in the amount of $ 352 million for the production of the first serial set of the C-HGB universal guided maneuverable gliding hypersonic warhead.

The US Army planned to start testing LRHW in 2021 with test launches about every six months, but now the start of flight tests has been postponed to 2022. Already in the 2023 fiscal year, it is planned to start the deployment of the first battery of the LRHW system with its setting on "experimental combat duty" as part of the 5th battalion (division) of the 3rd artillery regiment of the 17th field artillery brigade of the US Army, and now this battery has received first materiel and training equipment. Now the brigade includes two divisions (battalions) equipped with M142 HIMARS missile systems (including the 5th battalion of the 3rd artillery regiment). Subsequently, the serial batteries of the LRHW Dark Eagle system should be reduced to "strategic fire engagement battalions"

The US Navy, in turn, is carrying out the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) ship-based hypersonic missile program, which is actually a shipborne version of the LRHW in the same combination of C-HGB and AUR. The CPS missile is supposed to be used from surface ships and submarines. The CPS is slated to reach its initial operational capability in FY2025, when the missile is to be deployed on US Zumwalt- class destroyers. From fiscal 2028, the CPS missile is to be deployed on Virginia Block V -class nuclear-powered multipurpose submarines equipped with Virginia Payload Module (VPM) weapon modules.















Obtaining two prototypes of a mobile launcher and mass-dimensional mock-ups of transport and launch containers for missiles of the promising American LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) Dark Eagle ground-based hypersonic missile system by the 5th battalion (division) of the 3rd artillery regiment of the 17th field brigade US Army Artillery in Lewis McCord, Washington State, 14-15.09.2021 (c) Kyle Larsen / US Army

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4408204.html

So they have gone with a ground launched SLBM by the look of it.... genius...