DARPA touts ‘historic free flight check’ of Raytheon’s hypersonic missile prototype as US struggles to meet up with Russia

The US navy’s secretive R&D wing has introduced a profitable flight check for a hypersonic missile system developed by Raytheon, after a earlier trial utilizing Lockheed Martin’s rival mannequin led to failure final yr.

The free-flight launch for the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Idea (HAWC) was carried out efficiently final week and met “all major check aims,” the Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company (DARPA) mentioned in a press launch on Monday. It was the primary profitable check of the system made public by the navy.

“This brings us one step nearer to transitioning HAWC to a program of file that provides subsequent era functionality to the US navy,” mentioned Andrew Knoedler, who heads the HAWC program in DARPA’s Tactical Expertise Workplace, including that the check “was a profitable demonstration of the capabilities that can make hypersonic cruise missiles a extremely efficient software for our warfighters.”

DARPA’S #Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Idea (HAWC) accomplished an historic free flight check with @usairforce. The @RaytheonTech missile, launched from an plane, achieved speeds better than Mach 5 utilizing a @northropgrumman scramjet engine. https://t.co/Yl1QNOHmvD pic.twitter.com/PpFULZDvhl

— DARPA (@DARPA) September 27, 2021

The company mentioned the HAWC system can “strike targets way more shortly than subsonic missiles” because of its velocity and maneuverability, and might inflict vital harm via kinetic vitality alone, “even with out excessive explosives.” Throughout the current check, carried out collectively with the US Air Power, the munition was dropped from an plane, and shortly reached speeds better than Mach 5 – or 5 occasions the velocity of sound – utilizing a supersonic combustion ramjet engine developed by Northrop Grumman.

READ MORE: Russian hypersonic weapons firm chief detained by safety companies in Moscow on suspicion of passing secrets and techniques overseas – experiences

Whereas the most recent HAWC check reportedly went off with no hitch, this system has seen hiccups in current months. The system – together with two competing variants developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin – accomplished an preliminary spherical of testing final September, however a later check of Lockheed’s mannequin encountered issues and was deemed a failure. Although a lot about HAWC’s improvement is assessed and stays shrouded in secrecy, a DARPA supply informed Air Power Journal in December that the Lockheed check didn’t go properly, saying “I guarantee you, you’d have heard about it if there was one thing to rejoice.”

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Media experiences final yr additionally instructed HAWC prototype was destroyed after falling from a B-52 bomber carrying it throughout a check flight, nonetheless a DARPA supply informed the journal these claims have been exaggerated, and that the prototype solely sustained some harm, although declined to elaborate additional.

DARPA’s Monday press launch referred solely to Raytheon’s variant for the HAWC system, leaving it unclear the place Lockheed’s design stands or whether or not it had made any progress for the reason that fizzled check final winter. 

The R&D company plans to complete up the HAWC program someday within the 2022 fiscal yr, in accordance with the Drive, after which it hopes to merge a few of the identical applied sciences with the Air Power’s Hypersonic Assault Cruise Missile (HACM) system, one in every of a number of different hypersonic platforms at the moment underneath improvement on the Pentagon.

The US has redoubled its efforts to develop hypersonic tech after Moscow unveiled a complete vary of superior weaponry again in 2018. Russia has since turn into the primary nation on the earth to have deployed a hypersonic glide automobile into service. The Avangard will be carried by RS-18A and potential RS-28 Sarmat ICBMs to ship each nuclear and traditional payloads.

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The Kinzhal – which implies ‘dagger’ in Russian – can fly at Mach 10 velocity and is claimed to have the flexibility to carry out evasive maneuvers in-flight. The primary Kinzhals entered service in December 2017. The missile will be launched from the MiG-31Okay supersonic interceptor and Tu-22M3 bomber – and might carry each standard and nuclear warheads.

The Zircon anti-ship missile, allegedly able to flying at Mach eight, was additionally efficiently examined towards each vessels and land-based targets, and as of Could this yr was present process last trials earlier than deployment.

Within the meantime, Moscow says it’s absolutely conscious that different nations are swiftly designing their very own hypersonic weapons – however by the point they’re acquired, the Russian navy could have realized find out how to protect the nation from them, President Vladimir Putin mentioned final yr.

I believe that we are able to pleasantly shock our companions with the truth that after they get these weapons, we could have the technique of combating them, with a excessive diploma of likelihood.

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