US Military Seeks Hypersonic Weaponry

Dr. Eggman writes "In an interview with the Star-Telegram, the Air Force's chief scientist, Mark Lewis, talks about the USAF's latest research direction. The service is working on hypersonic missile and bombers for the purposes of reconnaissance and attack. In response to Chinese and Russian anti-satellite developments, the Air Force plans to develop weapons capable of sustained travel at Mach 6 to allow them to deploy against and take out anti-satellite launch sites before the enemy can fire their missiles. Furthermore, should the US spy satellite network be brought down, the Mach 6 recon flight systems would be capable of filling in. Air Force officials hope to deploy a new interim bomber by 2018, followed by a more advanced, and possibly unmanned, bomber in 2035." We've discussed on a number of occasions the scramjet technology that would power such vehicles.

This killing machine was much more obscure...

[TransEurope]

The device was called "Pluto VSLAM".

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/slam.html [designation-systems.net]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto [wikipedia.org]

It's from the 1950/60s. What a naive and stupid era.

The UK and Canada seem to do all right.

[StarKruzr]

What makes you think we can't do it as well as or better than they do?

Re:It's hysterical

[dafoomie]

The B-52 will likely outlast it, too. Its planned to be in active service until the 2040s.

Re:Wasting resources?

[cdrguru]

Funny that the US is the only country with a healthcare system that spends 90% of its resources on the elderly - specifically in the last five years of life. The rest of the world seems to take the attitude that old people die, so shut up and die.

Comparisons about what country is the "healthiest" is pointless - everyone else long ago figured out that if the government was going to pay they weren't going to get neonatal intensive care or transplants for 70-year-olds. Apparently it was decided that was an OK bargain. Except in the US and a few other places. The result is oldsters come to the US for care they can't get and can't pay for in their own countries.

Funny, the AARP seems to be behind the move to get the government paying for medical care. Their members are the ones that should be the most interested in making sure the situation in other countries is not repeated in the US but with a massive PR campaign the likely outcome isn't being discussed.

Re:This killing machine was much more obscure...

[Digi-John]

No, i mean stupid. I see nothing awesome in the building of machine which kills everyone on the ground in it's flight path and spreading radioactive material all over it just before it's drops several nuclear warheads on it's primary target. There is nothing awesome in such a machine, except the unbelievable assholeness of it's creators.

Read the articles you linked. The "path of destruction" is created by flying only a couple hundred meters above the ground--something you would definitely avoid while over friendly territory; takeoff is done with solid fuel boosters. The wikipedia article says, "Contrary to some reports, the exhaust of the engine would not itself be highly radioactive."; the other page conflicts this with "Additionally, the nuclear ramjet continuously left a trail of highly radioactive dust, which would seriously contaminate the area below the missile." One of these is true; which is hard to tell, since atomic-haters like to basically make up danger, while nuclear supporters will downplay any real threats.

It's people who wet themselves every time the words "nuclear power" are spoken that killed cheap electricity and such things as the NERVA engine.

Re:28 year planning?

[gardyloo]

I would argue this. We're not necessarily using stuff developed 20 years ago - no more than we are using "computers that were developed in the 50s." Yeah, the extremely basic concept is pretty old (yeah, our planes still fly and we still call them planes, but they are a far cry from what the Wright brothers were thinking!).

Have you seen the F-22 Raptor? Is that really that old?

And yet, from the very article you referenced...



In 1981 the United States Air Force (USAF) developed a requirement for a new air superiority fighter, the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), to replace the capability of the F-15 Eagle. ATF was a demonstration and validation program undertaken by the USAF to develop a next-generation air superiority fighter to counter emerging worldwide threats, including development and proliferation of Soviet-era Su-27 "Flanker"-class fighter aircraft. It was envisaged that the ATF would incorporate emerging technologies including advanced alloys and composite materials, advanced fly-by-wire flight control systems, higher power propulsion systems, and low-observable/stealth technology.

A request for proposal (RFP) was issued in July 1986, and two contractor teams, Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics and Northrop/McDonnell Douglas were selected in October 1986 to undertake a 50-month demonstration/validation phase, culminating in the flight test of two prototypes, the YF-22 and the YF-23.

On 23 April 1991 the USAF ended the design and test-flight competition by announcing Lockheed's YF-22 as the winner. It was envisaged at the time that 650 aircraft would be ordered.[6]

Re:This is just corporate welfare

[merreborn]

All these pie in the sky projects are simple ways of creating high paying white collar jobs in the home districts of powerful senators.

On the other hand, cutting edge military technology is what allowed us to roll over most of Iraq in a matter of weeks. Had we stopped research during the last major conflict, we'd be going in with 1970's era technology, and American fatalities would have been much higher than the 1000s.

What's more, modern research focuses on reducing civilian casualties. The weapons of yesteryear -- landmines, carpet bombing, napalm -- kill far more innocent civilians than, say, a cruise missile.

Keeping America on the bleeding edge is more than just corporate welfare. It keeps us a superpower. And yes, as you said, it also keeps senators in office, and their constituents rolling in pork.

Of course, the question of whether we *should* spend what it costs to remain a superpower is a difficult one. Lord knows no amount of technology will actually bring lasting stability back to Iraq.

Re:Dead before you hear it coming

[CodeBuster]

I think that you have it exactly backwards. For example, one of the primary goals of the Geneva conventions, other than laying out the rules for treatment of POWs, was to ensure that only weapons which deliver a quick and certain death, with the minimal amount of suffering, were used in warfare between signatories. This is why weapons such as the crossbow and others not deemed lethal enough were banned because they caused more agonizing deaths too frequently to justify their use in the face of better available weaponry (i.e. the only reason they would be chosen over a standard rifle would be to increase the suffering of the enemy which was not a valid reason under the agreement).

Re:Dead before you hear it coming

[greyhueofdoubt]

How is that different from any other way of dying in modern warfare?

Bullets, bombs, missiles, grenades, lasers, modern cannons, etc.: You will be dead before you know what's coming.

Arrows, poison gas, mortars, knives, crowbars, flames, etc.: You may have a split second or so to understand what is about to happen to you. Then you die.

No fair calling out radar or other sophisticated sensing systems, here. You could know that a V2 was coming through intel or visually or through crude radar even during WWII. You didn't have much time, no, but RF signals travel much faster than a V2. Even then: If you are the target coordinate of pretty much any modern weapon, you are on the fast track to fine-pink-mist-ification.

War is hell. Nothing can change that. Killing has become our most efficient national product. From the standpoint of a potential victim, I think I'd rather be instantly killed than mortally wounded so that I can spend a few days in agony before I die and my blood and organs are infected beyond use to anyone else.

  Frankly, I don't want to see the V2 or missile or bomb coming for me. I want either an early warning system that would allow me enough time to have a chance of survival (like we have already, the phalanx or CIWS- it has saved my ass); or else I want to go from a state of stupefied boredom to dead in the time it takes a fast explosive shockwave to dissociate my neurons.

There, I said it. Call me a coward, but I've actually dealt with the whole idea of staring death in the eye, and it is over-rated.

-b

Re:It's hysterical

[Odin The Ravager]

Actually, the planes themselves aren't that old. Every so often (ten years, IIRC), they strip everything out of the planes, and rebuild them from scratch (same as pretty much every aircraft)

Re:Wasting resources?

[Waffle Iron]

You need to provide links to back up your assertions because your numbers don't add up as far as I can tell. The CIA Factbook gives Japan 4 more years of life expectency than the USA. With the USA's 6 per 100,000 homicide rate and assuming on average a murder victim is 25 years old, that shaves 3 months off US life expectancy relative to Japan, even assuming zero murder rate in Japan. Similar math on car accidents shaves about 6 months, even assuming that nobody in Japan drives. Since I highly doubt that people in the USA are much clumsier than the rest of the world, you have yet to explain an additional 2.5 years of difference compared to my overly conservative estimates. Then you have to explain why we're paying so much more than these other countries; we ought to be living to 120 years old on average at these prices.

The fact that there may be public healthcare for the poor is irrelevant to most people, who aren't poor enough (or don't have the requisite children) to get in the plan, but don't have a pristine health history that allows them to buy individual insurance.

Face it, the thousands of privately managed risk pools, middlemen, ever-changing contracts, murky and confusing billing procedures, etc. make our healthcare system an insane, broken expensive nightmare unless you work at a large corporation. (Which is probably by design, as it creates a feudal-like system to keep corporate employees loyal at the risk of losing coverage for their families.)

Lasers?

[flyingfsck]

Laser weapons are faster than mach 6 for sure.