Japanese Hypersonic Missiles

Flyaway

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Wonder if this line in the budget could be referencing the development of a boost-glide weapon.

the development of a high-speed glide bomb for use in contingencies on such islands (10 billion yen); the development of a system to monitor space activity (4.4 billion yen).

 
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan-plans-to-deploy-hypersonic-missiles-and-upgraded-carrier
TOKYO -- The Japanese government is looking to deploy long-range and hypersonic missiles as part of guidelines due out this month, though some critics say such equipment goes beyond the Self-Defense Forces' purely defensive mandate.

The Defense Ministry has been working on new equipment, ostensibly to defend far-flung islands, including high-speed glide missiles capable of traveling more than 300 km and hypersonic guided missiles that fly more than five times the speed of sound to evade radar networks. It also aims to develop unmanned surveillance submarines under the new guidelines. All are expected to become deployable in the mid-2020s.

There is also a proposal to retrofit its Izumo helicopter carrier into what would in effect be a full-fledged aircraft carrier -- a type of ship the country has not had since World War II. The idea is to have it carry F-35B stealth fighters, which require only a short takeoff and can land vertically. Japan wants to buy more F-35s, including F-35As already deployed domestically.

The government on Wednesday will submit a draft of the National Defense Program Guidelines and Medium-Term Defense Program to an expert panel, as well as working teams under the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and junior partner Komeito. It will reflect their feedback in the final version, which it aims to have approved by the cabinet in mid-December.

But some critics see long-range missiles and aircraft carriers as more of an offensive capability, which run counter to the war-renouncing Article 9 of Japan's constitution. The government hopes to persuade them that the new equipment will be used solely for defensive purposes.

These do not seem to be related to either of the programs already announced.

I wonder if there has been some confusion somewhere along the line and the boost glide and hypersonic missiles are actually the same program?
 
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/obiekt/20180831-00095252/
 

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Low RCS can be achieved. tho Infra red, not so much.

The challenge however is to make the lo-lo-lo trajectory possible. Thus allow horizon masking.
 
stealthflanker said:
Low RCS can be achieved. tho Infra red, not so much.

The challenge however is to make the lo-lo-lo trajectory possible. Thus allow horizon masking.

Hypersonic or high supersonic at the low altitude is almost impossible due to the material sustainability
 
 
An earlier story on the same project:
 
The Defense News article of post #7 and Naval News article of #10 gives some good overview of these programs but I'd like to ask some details.

The full name of the Japanese hypersonic missile programs are 島嶼防衛用高速滑空弾 and 極超音速誘導弾, which means "High-Velocity Glide Vehicle for Island Defense (HVGVID)" and "Hypersonic Missile" respectively. You would notice that a lot of the new Japanese missiles are similarly named with 島嶼防衛用 as a prefix, which means "for island defense". More to it on the Japanese Cruise Missiles thread.

Anyways, the HGVGID is, as the name suggests, a boost-glide hypersonic vehicle. The plan is to develop 2 blocks of it. Block 1 will have a cylindrical re-entry vehicle more akin to a conventional MaRV and a range of over 500km. It will be boosted by a single-stage solid rocket. Block 2 will be a major improvement over block 1 and will have a wave rider RV. The booster will also be extended into 2 stages and as a result will have a range of over 1000km. Mid-course guidance will be performed via Japanese QZSS Asia-Pacific navigation system and INS. Terminal guidance is as described by the Defense News article.

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The Hypersonic Missile (I'll call it the Japanese hypersonic cruise missile or JHCM in short to avoid confusion) is a ramjet-scramjet dual mode cruise missile. It is thoroughly described by the Naval News article.

Though to note is that the currently revealed model is an experimental prototype for technology demonstration purposes.

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The blue part is a measuring instrument, not a warhead. A weaponised model is as shown below:

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The reason to go dual-mode ram-scramjet is to reduce booster size via extending engine operation envelop.

Also, the most recent model seems to have changed to a more cylindrical airframe from the rectangular airframe which was similar to the X-51:

images.jpeg
 
Nice to see Japan stepping up to the plate and responding to Xi and Kim in the only language they understand.
US, Japan and South Korea should move ahead as fast as possible to contain the two fatties.
 
Nice to see Japan stepping up to the plate and responding to Xi and Kim in the only language they understand.
US, Japan and South Korea should move ahead as fast as possible to contain the two fatties.
Some say that the reason US was so willing in abolishing the Korea-US Missile Range Guideline was so that South Korea could devlop and field their own MRBMs and IRBMs which could target China. Obviously, their most preferrable option would been to field their own, new intermediate range assets like LRHW in Korea, but as we have seen with THAAD deployment to SoKor, things are not as easy; if China's so up in the arse about deploying defensive assets to SoKor, imagine what'll happen when it's an offensive asset.

Same thing with Japan, but here the problem's more about internal politics.
 

MoD has announced details for the acquisition costs of the newer long-range strike assets. For the hypersonic programs will amount to more than ¥1 trillion ($7.27 billion). This includes the development (¥200 billion) and production (¥400 billion) of Hypersonic Missile(JHCM) as well as development (¥300 billion) and production (¥100 billion) of HGVGID block 2.

Development and procurement cost of HGVGID block 1 was not disclosed in the article.

More on https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...ore-unmanned-and-stand-off.40660/#post-569477
 
New graphics regarding the Japanese hypersonic cruise missile and HGV. It's been newly revealed that the HVGVID block 2 will be split in 2 increments of Block 2A and 2B. 2B will have a longer range, as shown in the graphic below.
 

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View: https://twitter.com/japanesepatrio6/status/1607303986838900737?s=20&t=Z7DeUbdtNqQKicSD87tbZA


High-velocity glide ammunition for island defense
・Early equipment type → Start mass production from next fiscal year (connection to 2A)
・Capacity-enhancing block 2A → Deployment after FY2027 (connection to 2B )
・Ability-enhancing block 2B → Deployment after 2030 (favorite) Range (including imagination)
・Early equipment type About 500km/Block 2A About 1000-2000km?
・Block 2B 3000km~?

from Inaba Yoshihiro, Japanese correspondent of Naval News.
 
Those seem like incredibly ambitious timelines. Has Japan had any previous hypersonic programs or testing?
They had hypersonic programs since the late 80s (eg. JSPTP/HYPR) but those programs focused primarily on ramjet/scramjets. As recently as this year they've tested the intake system of their new scramjet design strapped on a sounding rocket, its apogee being 168km and max v M 5.8.


There's a comprehensive introduction to JAXA's hypersonic research as well :


Though these are not exactly R&D efforts related to the timelines you've mentioned, since those are for HGV, although that doesn't mean they've been sleeping on HGV developments. There were other programs like HYFLEX which were more related to high-hypersonic high altitude glide vehicles. You could also take a look at their other space plane/shuttle programs of the past.
 
Having operational systems this decade still seems quite optimistic, though I wish Japan well in its efforts. The US has started several crash programs years ago and likely still won't have more than a handful of operational weapons until the end of the decade assuming its tests go well enough to save test articles for an experimental operational capability.
 
Having operational systems this decade still seems quite optimistic, though I wish Japan well in its efforts. The US has started several crash programs years ago and likely still won't have more than a handful of operational weapons until the end of the decade assuming its tests go well enough to save test articles for an experimental operational capability.
Yup, I agree with you that their schedules look real tight, but we'll see how they proceed. My reply was simply an answer to the question "Has Japan had any previous hypersonic programs or testing?". Their biggest problem seems like lack of experience regarding high-maneuverability HGVs. Their space shuttle programs weren't exactly one of those.
 

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