Future US Air Force missile: speeds up to Mach 6.5

[unhappycamper]

The X-51A scramjet could be a valuable tool as a 'manhunter' in fights such as those in Afghanistan or Iraq.
John Gress/U.S. Air Force

The X-51A program could mean that long-range strikes take a fraction of the time needed now.


Future US Air Force missile: speeds up to Mach 6.5
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 16, 2007 edition


Washington - In the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other individuals the military considers high-value targets, the US Air Force is pursuing a new program that could put a missile on a target in minutes instead of hours.

The Air Force is developing a "hypersonic" engine designed to fly bombs at Mach 6.5 speed, or more than 4,000 miles per hour, allowing commanders a chance to conduct long-range strikes on targets in a fraction of the time it takes now. The program, known as the X-51A scramjet, could be a valuable tool as a "manhunter" in fights such as those in Afghanistan or Iraq – or as a deterrent against more conventional enemies in industrialized nations, officials say. It all comes down to speed, and that could change the nature of the fight in the war on terrorism, military officials say.

"Faster is always better in air power," says Brig. Gen. Jim Poss, the Air Force's director of intelligence for its Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va. "What we've found from combat experience is that people realize very quickly you have to move to survive on the modern battlefield. And the best way to counter that is to get there with the appropriate weapon in the appropriate size very quickly."

The program isn't a weapons program per se, but a demonstration of an engine that can move a weapon really, really fast. Unlike a rocket, which requires its own oxygen stored in heavy tanks, a scramjet engine mixes the oxygen already in the air with fuel at such a high rate that it can propel itself faster than anything else that can fly long distances within the atmosphere. Strap on a warhead, and the United States has a unique new weapon, analysts and military officials say.

It sounds ideal from a military commander's standpoint. There's just one problem: The X-51A doesn't quite exist just yet.

~snip~

While the Navy is working on a similar "global strike" capability, it is the Air Force's initiative, with help from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, that is getting the most attention. If and when it's fielded, the X-51A would allow the Air Force to contribute in a way that some think is more pertinent to the kind of ground operations in which the US is engaged.


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uhc note: The beat goes on within the MIC.

[OneBlueSky]

1. oh joy . . . just what we need . . . bigger, better, and faster ways to blow shit up . . . n/t

.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Has anybody asked how we intend to pay for this?

Isn't that the first thing out of the mouths of Republicans whenever anybody proposes a new social program? Why can't we turn it back on them?

[Ezlivin]

3. I love their humor! --- "In the hunt for Osama bin Laden..."

LOL

Like they're looking for him, right?

We might as well be looking for the Holy Grail....