Boeing intercontinental missile

[sferrin]

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/boeing-proposes-missile-with-global-reach/19405693


"The company says it has a missile concept ready, and that if it gets the go-ahead and funding from the Pentagon, the weapon could be ready for fielding within 30 months. The missile, which was developed in the 1980s, is already "flight proven," Margaret Morse, Boeing's director for strategic missile systems, told reporters today at a press briefing on the company's missile defense work."


I'm curious what it is.

 

[bobbymike]

Has to be a Midgetman derivative, no? First two stages of a Minuteman III?

 

[seruriermarshal]

From AMaRV

 

[quellish]

Has to be a Midgetman derivative, no? First two stages of a Minuteman III?

Could be something like the Sandia STARS, a missile developed to boost targets.

 

[sferrin]

If it were a ballistic missile of some sort why not simply say so? Instead they refer to it as a "hypersonic missile" several times. (Obviously ICBMs are such but aren't typically described as such.)

"Morse says the Boeing missile would have a very different trajectory than an ICBM and could not be mistaken for a nuclear strike. Rather, it would be launched from a solid-rocket booster with a depressed trajectory, and then the unpowered missile would maneuver to its target using only its kinetic energy."

Sounds similar to the hypersonic thing they're testing next month (not the X-51 and for the life of me I can't find the name of the other one) or the McDonnell Douglas Model 122 BGRV. In fact given that McDonnell Douglas is now part of Boeing I wonder if this mystery item might be a developement of the BGRV.

 

[bobbymike]

Well if we isolate the points from the article:

1) Global reach
2) Solid rocket first stage at least
3) Depressed trajectory
4) Unpowered RV

Would the RV have to be some kind of wave rider or atmospheric "skipper" to have global reach when fired on a depressed trajectory and b unpowered? Both systems were studied if not tested, to my knowledge, in the 80's.