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Well, the launch: the United States continues to attempt to create hypersonic missiles

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Image source: Фото: Global Look Press/Aubrey Gemignani/Nasa

What is behind the testing of the HASTE device?

The American company RocketLab is conducting experimental work on hypersonics. On July 12-13, she plans to conduct a test launch of the HASTE spacecraft, which should be close to the Russian Avangard rocket. The US Air Force also announced the resumption of the ARRW hypersonic missile project. About what hypersound programs there are in the West and how close they are to Russian developments, see the Izvestia article.

The American HASTE program

This weekend, the private company RocketLab from the NASA rocket range on Wallops Island plans to conduct a test launch of a hypersonic vehicle under the HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) program.

Photo: TASS

Image source: iz.ru

HASTE is a suborbital hypersonic vehicle that is being created in the interests of the Pentagon. In terms of its purpose and capabilities, it should be close to the Russian Avangard project. The most modern materials and technologies were used in its creation — the structure is made of carbon composite, the latest engines and other parts are used, which are printed on a 3D printer. And, of course, the most modern and miniature electronics. Everything is very technologically advanced, but there is a fundamental difference with the Avangard — the Russian hypersonic glider, consisting of two regiments, has been on combat duty since 2019, while the American experimental vehicle is only making one of its test launches.

America is a rich country both financially and technologically. If they decide to create hypersonic weapons there, then they will create them. Moreover, the first hypersonic vehicles in the early 1960s - including the X—15 manned rocket aircraft - were created and tested in the USA. However, today in the field of hypersound, the United States has missed the start of the race and is now in a state of catching up. This applies to strategic, naval, and aviation missile systems.

X-15 Rocket Plane

Image Source: Photo: Uncredited

Under the HASTE program, in 2023, the US Department of Defense signed a contract to conduct several test launches in 2024-2025 with Dynetics, which develops hypersonic gliders for advanced LRHW and CPS missile systems. If the experimental launches are successful, then America will come very close to creating a new type of combat equipment for strategic ballistic missiles. And it will be able to receive the promising Sentinel ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and the future replacement of Trident-II missiles on nuclear submarines.

In the US nuclear triad, its aerial component plays an essential role. And, of course, it also requires a hypersonic missile system. Work on such a project has been underway for several years, but two years ago, in March 2023, funding was discontinued. And now the ARRW (Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon) program with the AGM-183A rocket has been resumed again.

Testing of the AGM-183A hypersonic missile prototype

Image source: Photo: TASS/ABACA

This munition launches from a carrier aircraft and gains speed and altitude along a ballistic trajectory. Next, a hypersonic gliding warhead is separated from the upper stage of the rocket, which flies at a speed of about Mach 5, maneuvering and overcoming enemy air defense systems. It is believed that the ARRW hypersonic glider is small in size, but it must be understood that a modern thermonuclear warhead can have a mass of less than 100 kg and is placed on a fairly miniature aircraft. Accordingly, if the program is successful, it will go into production in both nuclear and non-nuclear equipment.

The HACM Program

There is also a program for the creation of a hypersonic cruise missile HACM (Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile), which is equipped with a ramjet engine with hypersonic combustion from Raytheon.Gorenje No one in the world has such a missile today, and it is not yet clear whether the United States will be able to create this weapon in a tangible time frame. The hypersonic RAMJET munition will have a cruising flight speed of 8 M (eight speeds of sound).

Photo: TASS/JIM LO SCALZO

Image source: iz.ru

At the same time, it will be able to maneuver and change altitude like a conventional supersonic rocket. Of course, the most modern materials will be used in the construction, since the temperature of the hull during flight in the atmosphere will reach several thousand degrees. Today it is the most ambitious American project. If there is success here, then we should expect the use of such engines not only in rockets, but also in manned aircraft. In the meantime, the plans are optimistic — as early as early 2027, the United States plans to complete the HACM tests and begin deploying missiles to equip strategic aircraft.

European projects

Europe, on the one hand, is asking to host American missile "umbrellas", but on the other hand, it is trying to be self—sufficient and is conducting its own work under the EHTP (European Hypersonic Technologies Program) program. Unlike the pragmatic American ones, the European program does not seek to create a specific type of weapon — the Europeans say they are engaged in science. They are researching flight technologies at speeds above 5 M — materials, engines, control systems and other common components, from which development companies will already be able to create specific samples of deadly missiles.

Photo: Global Look Press/Philipp von Ditfurth

Image source: iz.ru

The program includes the creation of a hypersonic ramjet, ceramic materials for the hulls of future aircraft, and control systems for target-guided flight at hypersonic speeds. But noble Europe is doing this to develop science and support future industrial breakthroughs.

And one more thing. Today, there are only a few missile systems that are already in service and even used in combat using hypersound. These are the Russian Kinzhal, Zircon, and strategic Avangard missile systems (currently only on duty). The projects of these systems started in the 1980s and 1990s and became the quintessence of the development of rocket engineering in modern Russia. This is an absolute national priority. And these are not the only projects that our designers are working on. So while the West is creating the first-generation combat hypersound, Russia is already preparing the second.


Dmitry Kornev

Julia Leonova

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