Current US hypersonic weapons projects. (General)

NMaude said:
What do they mean by a "Highly loaded grain"?
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Typical SRMs use a Center Perforated (CP, hole through the center of the cylinder) grain as the configuration of the propellant you’ll also hear finocyl used to designate a star pattern in the CP. This configuration is typically limited to 80-90% volume loading on large motors, less for smaller diameters. The concept of highly loaded grain is to go beyond that typical design scenario. Basically, trying to stuff more propellant (ie, motor impulse) into the same volume.
 
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Josh_TN said:
Air resistance slows everything down at sea level. Mach 2.5 is the fastest figure I’ve seen for a sea skimmer. I doubt Brahmos or Zircon are much faster at low altitude; hypersonic speeds are pretty much by definition high altitude for air breathers. Even ICBM RVs massively slow down in the thick air of the lower atmosphere. I suspect every hypersonic glider slows down to supersonic speeds on its dive to the target.
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Although low level and very high speed can occur. Although obviously not a weapon ;)
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3qeoH_8jQ5E&pp=ygUQcm9ja2V0IHJhaWwgdGVzdA%3D%3D
Wonder what this would look like hitting the side of a ship?
 
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bobbymike said:
We make better test targets than missiles it seems ;)
newsreleases.sandia.gov

Catch me if you can? Check.

Sandia National Laboratories is helping defend deployed troops and the nation against hypersonic threats.
newsreleases.sandia.gov newsreleases.sandia.gov
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Yep.

"To satisfy the need for a very high performance target drone to test the SAM-A-7/MIM-3 Nike Ajax,SAM-A-25/MIM-14 Nike Hercules, and IM-99/CIM-10 Bomarc surface-to-airmissiles, a relatively unmodified target version of the X-7A-3 was ordered by the USAF. The target, named Kingfisher, wasdesignated by the Air Force as XQ-5, but the Kingfisher program was soon transferred to the U.S. Army, which did not usethe Q-5 designator. Eventually, in June 1963, the XQ-5 was redesignated as AQM-60A.

However, the performance of the Kingfisher proved to be a bit too high for the interceptor missiles, and relatively few hitswere scored. This was somewhat embarrassing to the military and the manufacturers of the SAMs, and therefore political pressureplayed a role when the Kingfisher flight program was cancelled in the mid-1960s. Production of the X-7/XQ-5 series had ended in 1959,after 61 X-7/XQ-5 missiles of all variants had been built."

Same with the AQM-35

In June 1963, the Q-4 and Q-4B were redesignated as AQM-35A and AQM-35B, respectively. However, the Q-4/AQM-35never became fully operational with the USAF, and only 25 XQ-4/Q-4B missiles were built. Quoted reasons for the cancellation include problems during development and flight-test, and the fact that the AQM-35's performance was too high for the surface-to-air missiles of the early 1960s anyway. The AQM-35 had apparently been removed from the inventory by the mid-1960s.
 
Josh_TN said:
That’s an interesting NOTAM…it looks like two separate trajectories might be used? Perhaps weather dependent?
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Or two missiles, or two warheads on one missile???

What's interesting is that assuming the launch from Florida, the glide range seems to be more than half the total range (>2,000km). Perhaps this is the more advanced boost glide vehicle for the Dark Eagle.
 
Forest Green said:
Or two missiles, or two warheads on one missile???

What's interesting is that assuming the launch from Florida, the glide range seems to be more than half the total range (>2,000km). Perhaps this is the more advanced boost glide vehicle for the Dark Eagle.
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Is there a second type of glide vehicle known to be in development? Otherwise I would just assume a longer glide range was a test to see how stable the vehicle is at slower speeds, possibly down well into supersonic.
 
Forest Green said:
Or two missiles, or two warheads on one missile???

What's interesting is that assuming the launch from Florida, the glide range seems to be more than half the total range (>2,000km). Perhaps this is the more advanced boost glide vehicle for the Dark Eagle.
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It should be much more than that.
 
Just remember that in 2021 there was an attempt made to test the Common Hypersonic Glide Body from Kodiak to Kwaj which is around a 4000nm flight. Most of that test, as with all of the glide body tests, is done in the glide phase. The extra distance on that test was to come from the increased initial velocity given the larger booster (STARS, a modified Trident C4 stack). It was meant to test the limits of the thermal protection design. It was unfortunate that the booster failed shortly after launch.

CHGB can potentially go a lot further than the current CPS/LRHW stack can throw it.
 

Rocket Lab tapped for project to accelerate pace of hypersonic flight testing | InsideDefense.com

Rocket Lab will launch the first full-scale hypersonic flight test under the Pentagon's $1.45 billion program to upgrade test infrastructure, a major move to expand the Defense Department's limited hypersonic testing capacity.
insidedefense.com insidedefense.com

Forest Green said:

Detonation-Powered Hypersonic Flight Pursued By Venus Aerospace | Aviation Week Network

Rotating detonation engines have huge potential for realizing efficient high-speed flight, but they are proving fiendishly difficult to get right.
aviationweek.com aviationweek.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1914674944664801670
View: https://x.com/Marco_Langbroek/status/1914674944664801670

View attachment 767674
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1915785115227013409
View: https://x.com/AirPowerNEW1/status/1915785115227013409


https://twitter.com/x/status/1915747070029300152
View: https://x.com/JerryPikePhoto/status/1915747070029300152


https://twitter.com/x/status/1915750832005325148
View: https://x.com/JerryPikePhoto/status/1915750832005325148
 
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Forest Green said:
www.twz.com

Bringing Back Medium Range Ballistic Missiles Fast Tracked Under Proposed $150B Defense Boost

Congress wants to speed up work on the Army's first MRBMs since the Cold War, which will offer new ways to strike land targets and ships.
www.twz.com www.twz.com
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Everyone knows my favourite concept - Vietnam war proposal. Although this is over a very short range dropping 50k of HE onto a ship in the SCS would be interesting.

My ideal weapon would be way too expensive probably. 2500-3500km range able to carry a modified MOAB sized warhead.
 

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bobbymike said:
Everyone knows my favourite concept - Vietnam war proposal. Although this is over a very short range dropping 50k of HE onto a ship in the SCS would be interesting.

My ideal weapon would be way too expensive probably. 2500-3500km range able to carry a modified MOAB sized warhead.
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I can see major problems putting that much explosive ordnance on a ship?
 
bobbymike said:
breakingdefense.com

Ursa Major looks to fly Draper engine, takes aim at rocket engine markets - Breaking Defense

“This will be a next-generation capability being introduced by Ursa Major for hypersonic technology,” Ursa Major CEO Dan Jablonsky told Breaking Defense.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
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"“This will be a next generation capability being introduced by Ursa Major for hypersonic technology,” Jablonsky said in an interview ahead of the contract award. “This will be a storable liquid rocket engine capable of hypersonic speeds in atmosphere or exoatmospheric, and nothing else like it exists on that basis.”"

Pretty sure Kh-22 has been doing this for half a century.
 
Sferrin said:
"“This will be a next generation capability being introduced by Ursa Major for hypersonic technology,” Jablonsky said in an interview ahead of the contract award. “This will be a storable liquid rocket engine capable of hypersonic speeds in atmosphere or exoatmospheric, and nothing else like it exists on that basis.”"

Pretty sure Kh-22 has been doing this for half a century.
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Kh-22 is hypersonic?
 
Sferrin said:
Pretty sure Kh-22 has been doing this for half a century.
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The AS-4 Kitchen entered service over 60 years ago in the Soviet Union, basically state-of-the-art late 50s/very early 60s tech.
 
Chambered said:
Kh-22 is hypersonic?
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Looks like it's just the follow on Kh-32.

Х-32 / 9-А-2362 | MilitaryRussia.Ru — отечественная военная техника (после 1945г.)

Сборник справочной информации по отечественным системам вооружений выпуска после 1945 г., форум
militaryrussia.ru militaryrussia.ru

I could swear I read of a a bunch of Kh-22 semi-ballistic flight tests where they were reaching Mach 6.

Kh-22 (AS-4 Kitchen) - Испытатели

The winged missile developed for K-22 system This missile was destined for destruction of radar sea targets (ships) or ground targets (bridges, dams, and power stations). Its development began in […]
testpilot.ru testpilot.ru

"During experimental tests conducted from 95-96 years the Raduga-D2 (Kh-22B version) had reached a speed of Mach 6 and an altitude of about 70 km."
Источник: https://testpilot.ru/en/rossiya-e/mikoyan/kh22/ Испытатели © www.testpilot.ru
 
Sferrin said:
"During experimental tests conducted from 95-96 years the Raduga-D2 (Kh-22B version) had reached a speed of Mach 6 and an altitude of about 70 km."
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Raduga-D2, a flying hypersonic testbed family based on Kh-22, never was built and flown. Still, plans described tests envelope speed growth from M6-6.5 to M8-9 and even to M12-14 with a booster stage.
Jablonsky seemingly never heard of WZ-8 too.
 

U.S. Navy Proves Sea-Based Hypersonic Launch Approach​

May 2, 2025 |

The U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs is continuing on the path toward the nation's first sea-based hypersonic fielding with a successful end-to-end flight test of a conventional hypersonic missile from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This test marked the first launch of the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) capability utilizing the Navy's cold-gas launch approach that will be used in Navy sea-based platform fielding.
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1746280213177.png
 
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