[ad_1]
It should be noted that Lockheed Martin’s design follows the same general concept, using a rocket thruster to accelerate the main air vehicle, which is powered by another scramjet developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne. What was then Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne had developed the SJY61 scramjet for the X-51A. Lockheed Martin is now trying to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne.
DARPA’s current plan is to conclude the HAWC program in fiscal year 2022, which begins on Friday. At this point, the plan is, at least in part, for technologies developed under the HAWC to power the Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) project.
The HACM is just one of several air-breathing hypersonic weapons programs, as well as hypersonic aircraft projects, known to be currently under development within the Air Force and Navy. . This includes another Air Force project known as Mayhem, which focuses more on hypersonic engine technology, and a Navy effort called the Screaming Arrow. The Navy oddly canceled Screaming Arrow, which focused on developing a hypersonic anti-ship missile, in March, before restarting it last month.
It’s also worth noting that DARPA originally hoped to start HAWC flight tests by the end of 2020 and it’s unclear how close the Raytheon / Northrop Grumman or Lockheed Martin designs may be now. DARPA did not say whether the launch of the Raytheon / Northrop Grumman demonstrator last week was the first flight test of a HAWC aerial vehicle, successful or not.
As recently as last week, the Air Force also said it was broadly reassessing its own hypersonic weapons plans. The challenges with the AGM-183A Air Launcher Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), unrelated to the HAWC, were among the issues that prompted this introspection. The first two flight tests of the AGM-183A, which the Air Force hopes will be the US Army’s first operational air-launch hypersonic weapon, have failed, as you can read more about here.
“I’m not happy with the pace,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said at the Air Force Association’s (AFA) annual conference on air, space and cybernetics last week. “We are making some progress on the technology. I wish it were better. “
At the same time, some members of Congress are pushing the US military as a whole to make more progress in aerial hypersonic capabilities of all kinds, and aerobic platforms in particular. A report accompanying the Senate Armed Services Committee’s markup of an annual United States Defense Policy Bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was released last week, said: “The committee is concerned about the lack of focus on air-launched and aerobic hypersonic ability. “
The U.S. military, as well as many lawmakers, view hypersonic weapons as essential to preserving America’s military advantage in future conflicts, especially potential high-end battles against nearby adversaries, such as Russia or the United States. China. The Russians and the Chinese are already developing and putting into service their own hypersonic missiles of various types.
Regardless, work on HAWC has always been viewed as a stepping stone to the Air Force, as well as the Navy, fielding operational air-breathing cruise missiles. With this disclosure of this flight test last week, we can now begin to learn more about the exact extent of the progress DARPA has already made in this regard.
[ad_2]
Source link