Friday, March 21, 2014

The Pentagon Wants Hypersonic Weapons



Pentagon Goes Hypersonic With Long-Range Rapid Attack Weapon -- Washington Times

An experimental scramjet-powered, ultrahigh speed strike vehicle is emerging as the Pentagon’s main choice for a new long-range, rapid attack weapon, a senior Pentagon official says.

Alan R. Shaffer, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for research and engineering, told a defense industry conference that prototypes and recent tests proved concepts for hypersonic arms, and several systems are part of a high-priority effort by Pentagon weapons developers, despite the era of sharply-diminished defense spending.

Hypersonic vehicles can deliver nuclear or conventional payloads in precision strikes against increasingly hard-to-penetrate air defenses of countries like China, Russia and Iran, he said.

Read more ....

My Comment: The big test for this technology will be in August .... Hypersonic Weapons Face Major Milestone In August Test -- Braking Defense

2 comments:

Don Bacon said...

"Pentagon Goes Hypersonic"

Right, it's a proven concept, like the concept that I will play the mandolin at the Grand Old Opry this summer.

Ho hum.

Sorry, but this is no-news news. It's a BS counter to some "news" from China:
Mar 17, 2014
China's Hypersonic Glide Vehicle May Fly 10 Times Faster Than Sound

A developmental Chinese hypersonic vehicle could exceed the speed of sound 10 times over, the Taiwanese newspaper China Times reports.

War News Updates Editor said...

Some background info on China's hypersonic program http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-us-is-now-in-hypersonic-arms-race.html