Russia and other developments in Hypersonic Research

The photos above are the AGM-183M undergoing aerodynamic testing. Kinzhal like?

From the Paris Air Show via The Drive we have a new US development program breaking cover. Zircon like?


Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have revealed that they have been working together on a scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, which uses an engine that is entirely 3D-printed. Their design is competing against one from Lockheed Martin under the Defense Advanced Research Project's Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept program, or HAWC.

The two companies publicly announced their partnership at the 2019 Paris Air Show on June 18, 2019, but they have been working together secretly for years on HAWC, according to Aviation Week. DARPA began the HAWC program in 2014, in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). "We have a flight test planned for the near future where we will begin flying this particular class of weapon system," Tom Bussing, the Vice President of Raytheon's advanced missile system division, told reporters in Paris. "This weapon is fundamentally game-changing. There’s nothing like it."

Raytheon had revealed concept art of the missile ahead of the Paris Air Show. From what we can see so far, the design has a relatively typical layout for this weapon concept, with a rocket booster attached to the rear of the main scramjet-powered weapon. The booster motor will accelerate the missile to near hypersonic speed in order for the scramjet to work properly, before falling away.
Raytheon

Concept art of Northrop Grumman and Raytheon's HAWC design, at right, along with an unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicle design. Raytheon had submitted a bid to build this kind of hypersonic vehicle for DARPA's Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) program, as well as one for the US Air Force's Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) program, but lost out to Lockheed Martin in both cases.

The two partners offered few details about the scramjet itself, but said that it leveraged their decades of combined experience in hypersonics. This includes the development of the scramjet-powered X-43A hypersonic test vehicle for NASA. General Applied Science Laboratory (GASL), then part of Allied Aerospace, built the engine for this craft in the 1990s.

Company concept art (without showing 'secret' elements)



In 2003, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) bought GASL. In 2015, ATK merged with Orbital Sciences Corporation, which had also worked on the X-43A program, to form Orbital ATK. In 2018, Northrop Grumman purchased Orbital ATK, renaming it Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, the division of the company that is now working with Raytheon on HAWC.

The X-43A remains the fastest jet-powered air vehicle to date after it hit a top speed of Mach 9.6 – approximately 7,000 miles per hour – during a flight test in 2004. But John Wilcox, Northrop Grumman's Vice President of Advanced Weapons and Technology, said that the new engine was multiple generations ahead of the one developed for the X-43A.

He also said that the company had built the scramjet entirely using advanced additive manufacturing processes, commonly known as 3D printing, which helped reduce the design's total weight. It is reportedly half the weight of the scramjet Boeing developed for its experimental X-51A Waverider more than a decade ago. Finding ways to keep the overall size and weight down is important for HAWC, which is meant to be a relatively small hypersonic weapon that even a fighter jet-sized aircraft might be able to carry. The X-43A weighed 3,000 pounds and required a modified B-52 bomber to lift it.

The X-51A Waverider (USAF photo)



As for the overall design of Northrop Grumman and Raytheon's missile, like the X-51A, it is also a "waverider" design, which "skips" on top of the shockwaves produced during high-speed flight to produce additional lift. The main missile has a contoured nose that hides its inlet, the design of which is classified, according to Aviation Week. Ensuring proper airflow into the scramjet engine at extremely high speed, while also keep drag to a minimum is a complex task.

The shrouded inlet could also offer stealthy characteristics, making the missile even more difficult to spot. The extreme speed and atmospheric flight profiles of hypersonic weapons, together with their maneuverability, already make hypersonic weapons, in general, difficult, if not impossible to spot, track, and intercept. This makes them ideal for penetrating through heavy air defenses to execute short- or no-notice strikes against time-sensitive targets or otherwise critical targets.

A powered design, such as the one that Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are working on now, would potentially have unique performance over the unpowered boost-glide vehicles, another common type of hypersonic weapon, as well. You can read more about the game-changing capabilities of both powered and unpowered designs in a past War Zone feature here.

It's also important to note that DARPA and the Air Force have described HAWC as some of a technology demonstration that would lead into the development of a more refined hypersonic cruise missile. So, it is unclear when the missile, or a follow-on design, might actually become operational.
DARPA



A first flight would certainly be an important step in that direction. While Raytheon's Bussing did not say specifically when the first flight of their design would occur, in its most recent budget request, DARPA said HAWC flight testing was set to begin in the 2020 Fiscal Year, which starts on Oct. 1, 2019. It is possible that the program, or Northrop Grumman and Raytheon's particular design, is moving ahead of schedule.
DOD



"We're on track for both to have flights … before the calendar year ends," Dr. Steven Walker, head of DARPA, told reporters on May 1, 2019, referring to HAWC and a second hypersonic weapons program known as Tactical Boost Glide (TBG). But when "you actually get into the building of these things and qualifying the hardware, … things tend to slip," he added.

There is a real push throughout the U.S. military to move quickly to both develop and actually field hypersonic weapons for air-launched, as well as sea- and ground-based applications. Just last week, the Air Force revealed that it had conducted the first captive-carry flight test of the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, which is an air-launched unpowered boost-glide vehicle design.

Hypersonic developments among potential opponents, especially Russia, have been driving the United States to speed up its own work in this space. China is also actively pursuing hypersonic weapons.

Work on advanced scramjets could also support the development of hypersonic manned or unmanned aircraft down the road. DARPA is separately working on a hybrid engine that combines the features of a traditional jet turbine with that of a ramjet or scramjet under the Advanced Full Range Engine (AFRE) program. This configuration, also known as a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion (TBCC) arrangement, would allow an aircraft to accelerate from a standing start to hypersonic speeds and then slow back down, making it more practical for regular use using conventional runways.

Orbital ATK, and now Northrop Grumman, is working on the AFRE effort. There are other similar developments publicly the works elsewhere, as well, including Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works advanced design division's SR-72 hypersonic plane concept, and that's to say nothing of other projects that might be in progress in the classified realm.

All told, the exciting and potentially revolutionary work within the U.S. military on hypersonic weapons seems to be moving ahead at its own increasingly feverish clip. Northrop Grumman and Raytheon's flight test of their HAWC design, likely to come within the next six months, will be another important step forward in these developments.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28580/northrop-and-raytheon-have-been-secretly-working-on-scamjet-powered-hypersonic-missile

miketheterrible wrote:

magnumcromagnon wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:

ATLASCUB wrote:To be fair.... god I hate that phrase...we have yet to see jack shit of Zircon.

That american missile has probably been flown in some form to be at the stage that it's. Numbers however.... we know advertisement for U.S weapons can be very wild, even by normal standards. Kinda the norm for states to prop up their weaponry like corps do to their products but the U.S does take the cake.

The secrecy surrounding Zircon is interesting. I am assuming Kinzhal got publicity cause it's an existing missile modified a bit and fitted on an aircraft. Zircon is something new entirely. All we got was Intel on both sides it flew, but that's it.

I hate how Russia hides development. I know we aren't the customers and secrecy is important but it would be nice to see.

Don't be irrational.

You have no idea what irrational is if you think that is.  Take a look at this forums as a whole.

But they have no problem showing most systems.  Zircon on the other hand they have been very hush hush.  They even showed Poseidon after all.

You are being irrational, because you think appeasing fanboi masturbation is more important than national security. They'll reveal it when they are ready.

US hypersonic missile to enter preliminary trials no sooner than late 2020, says source

LE BOURGET, June 20. /TASS/. The US most advanced hypersonic missile, which leading American defense contractor Raytheon is developing, will enter preliminary trials no sooner than the end of 2020, a source in Raytheon told TASS at the 53rd Paris Air Show on Thursday.

"The development work has entered the active phase. By now, the missile’s concept has been created, its mockup is being assembled and its flight characteristics are being determined. At the same time, problems related to the engine’s development exist. Their solution is delaying the commencement of the missile’s trials at least until the end of next year," the source said, adding that the developers had been assigned the task of achieving the missile’s speed of no less than Mach 5.

"At this moment, it is difficult to speak about any application of this missile as its development is at the initial stage while the Pentagon is just formulating its requirements for hypersonic weapons. However, we consider the new missile primarily as an air-launched weapon to strike ground and naval targets. Raytheon will also study the expediency of its integration into land-based tactical missile systems and combat ships," the developer’s representative said.

The concept of a hypersonic missile being developed by Raytheon was unveiled at the Le Bourget air show. The advanced missile is being developed under the HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept) program initiated by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The US Northrop Grumman is also involved in the missile’s development.

https://tass.com/defense/1064742

New data on the promising US Army LRHW hypersonic missile system

At a symposium of representatives of the US defense industry on space and missile defense (Space and Missile Defense Symposium) on August 7, 2019 in Huntsville (Alabama), representatives of the US Department of Defense released new data on a ground-based hypersonic missile weapon system created in the interests of the American army LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon). Recall that for the first time some details about this system were disclosed in May 2019 at a conference of the US Army Association (AUSA) in Honolulu.


Shot from the presentation of the promising ground-based system of hypersonic missile weapons of the ground-based US Army LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) (c) US Army


In fact, this LRHW system is a universal solid-propellant medium-range ground-based ballistic missile AUR (All-Up-Round), equipped with a universal, maneuverable planning hypersonic warhead of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) performed by Block 1. Both of these system components created by the Sandia National Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy with the participation of the United States Missile Defense Agency. The C-HGB hypersonic warhead is being developed as a whole to equip weapons systems of three types of the US armed forces (army, air force and navy). The AUR missile will also be used by the US Navy.

The AUR missile has a case diameter of 34.5 inches (887 mm). The missile will be launched from a transport and launch container with a length of about 10 m from a ground-based towed towed two-container mobile launcher with an Oshkosh M983A4 tractor unit (8x8). The launcher semi-trailer is a modified M870 semi-trailer of the Patriot SAM launcher launcher. The missile system will use the standard American fire control system for missile forces and artillery AFATDS in version 7.0 for fire control. The battery of the LRHW system will include four dual-container launchers and one fire control vehicle.

Presumably, the C-HGB hypersonic warhead is based on the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) experimental hypersonic warhead developed by Sandy National Laboratories for the US Army, flight tests of which were conducted in 2011 and 2012 and reached a speed of 8M. An AUR rocket is also possible, based on an accelerator rocket used to launch AHW.

The US Army plans to start the LRHW tests in 2021 with test launches about once every six months. Already in the fiscal year 2023, the deployment of LRHW missile systems batteries as part of the Strategic Fires Battalion divisions and their deployment to “pilot combat duty” is expected to begin.

The LRHW range was not officially disclosed, but the AHW range was claimed at 3,700 nautical miles (6,800 km), and a number of unofficial estimates give an effective LRHW range of about 5,000-6,000 km.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3733106.html

So it is an SLBM in a truck with a junior copy of Avangard that is probably not as good...

Part of hypersonic development of USSR and Russia

I believe that the latest assertions of our dear, old John Bolton on the development of the most cutting edge hypersonic technologies in the Federation are a very good clue of the, sincerely childish, exceptionalism-generated madness that lie on the basis of the decisions and the same thought of American elite :


"Despite the fact that Russia’s economy is comparable to the Netherlands, she spends enough money on defense to not only modernize theirs nuclear weapons but to buil new kinds of delivery vehicles, [b hypersonic gliding vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles, largely stolen from American technology[/b],”  


Video included.........

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/08/15/russia-stole-us-hypersonic-missile-tech-to-make-nuclear-advances-bolton-a66880


Obviously the funny response to this awkward idiocy do not need any wait.


Франц Клинцевич leading member of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee commented (traduction)

"In terms of the technologies that Bolton speaks of, the United States is about 15-20 years behind Russia, and it’s unlikely that it will ever be possible to catch up. Russia has these developments, but the USA does not. And to say that Russia has stolen from the USA what the Americans do not possess is at least ridiculous.”

“A year and a half ago, the Americans said that Russia was bluffing, that it does not have the technologies in question, that these are all cartoons and divorce. Mr. Bolton himself spoke of this, among other things. And today he already says that we are stealing from them. But in fact, it’s the Americans who are trying to steal technology from us, doing tremendous work in this direction”

"Therefore, Bolton’s rhetoric is understandable, we take it calmly. As they say in Russia, this is an attempt to shift from a sick head to a healthy one. But it will not work. Theft is their specialty. And we are developing our independent Russian science, and it gives results every year. Then, in a year or two, the Americans will generally be in a panic over what developments Russia will begin to operate on. Including in the military sphere."


https://vz.ru/news/2019/8/15/992500.html

GarryB wrote:So it is an SLBM in a truck with a junior copy of Avangard that is probably not as good...

It's the US equivalent of the Rubezh system

flamming_python wrote:

GarryB wrote:So it is an SLBM in a truck with a junior copy of Avangard that is probably not as good...

It's the US equivalent of the Rubezh system

It can't be an equivalent, because looking at the TEL it lack cross-country strategic mobility. The wide space between the front set of wheels and the ones on the back of the trailer is a dead give-away that it lacks the necessary mobility:




The US TEL would have the mobility of a commercial semi-truck, but x100 times as expensive. When Rubezh is put in to service (likely on the Kamaz BMO TEL) it will have the strategic mobility the US TEL lacks.

I think he means theoretical equivalent, like the Buran to the Space Shuttle.

Russia has rather extensive experience with very large truck mounted missiles from short range to ICBMs, so this could be considered an area that the US is well behind in.

As Hole mentions at the top of this page, any new US missile they put forward is going to be like Kinzhal in the sense that it is going to be existing technology that is adapted to a new role... except of course the Iskander the Kinzhal was based on was perfectly legal under existing treaties like the INF treaty, as was the Kinzhal missile being air launched and not bound by the INF treaty either.

The US missile will likely be based on Illegal US target missiles... I remember a short while back Arrow accusing Russia because they must use medium range missile targets for their tests, so those missile targets must violate the INF treaty... of course that is not necessarily true... air launched systems or sea or river launched systems could easily do the job without violating the INF treaty...

And of course much longer ranged missiles with warheads fitted with airbrakes could simulate the trajectory of shorter ranged slower missiles too when needed.

Now of course scramjet powered missiles would be the best way to simulate all sorts of different ranged missiles... with range not an issue you could redesign them for extreme speed over a fairly short distance so air defence systems can practise intercepting them...

GarryB wrote:Of course during the Soviet period it was quite normal for a design bureau to suddenly move to a different field, just to inject new ideas into different fields.

Several Jewish Russians working in these design bureaus shifted to Israel and joined Israeli defence & aerospace companies. So Israel (and possible the US) benefited immensely from that transfer of knowledge.

Mindstorm wrote:https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/08/15/russia-stole-us-hypersonic-missile-tech-to-make-nuclear-advances-bolton-a66880[/url]

The opposite is true. Several Jewish Russians who were working in various defence primes, design bureau across Russia moved to Israel and joined the various Israeli defence companies. The Israeli military industry benefited immensely from the knowledge of these Jewish Russians.

GarryB wrote:So it is an SLBM in a truck with a junior copy of Avangard that is probably not as good...

And how would you know it's not as good? Had a chance to use it?

flamming_python wrote:It's the US equivalent of the Rubezh system

Rubezh was standard ICBM, this would be closer to SS-20 with Zircon as payload

And how would you know it's not as good? Had a chance to use it?

Because ICBMs fly further and faster which would mean any Avangard type vehicle mounted on an SLBM even if it had equal performance would be seriously inferior from a smaller lighter launch platform like an SLBM.

You would think, based on need the US would be a leader in defeating ABM systems... like the Soviets were very good with SAMs and anti ship missiles because of western air power and US Navy AEGIS integrated air defence systems with fighter and AWACS support from their carriers...

Well the Soviets have had an active ABM system around Moscow for over half a century now, yet the standard plan so far seems to have been overwhelm it with numbers rather than developing anything specifically to defeat it.

The Russians have done a better job.

The US will soon also carry hypersonic weapons.Russia's advantage will not last long.

Hahahahahaha... you just don't get it... it doesn't matter if the US gets hypersonic weapons, or when... the point is that now they have little to no defence from a Russian attack... and if the US gets hypersonic weapons that doesn't change.

SLBM = Sea launched ballistic missile
SRBM = Short range ballistic missile
MRBM = Medium range ballistic missile

yes, I know, but in the case of Russia and the US with land based missiles banned by the INF treaty one of the quickest ways of getting something useful in service is to use a SLBM... or ICBM with one stage removed to make them two stage missiles.

GarryB wrote: Hahahahahaha... you just don't get it... it doesn't matter if the US gets hypersonic weapons, or when... the point is that now they have little to no defence from a Russian attack... and if the US gets hypersonic weapons that doesn't change.

Yakhont (especially Brahmos) had some issues related to aluminium cloud weakness. Did they fix that issue ?