The General Directorate of Armaments (Direction générale de l'armement - DGA) of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of France reported that on the evening of June 26, 2023, the first test launch of the demonstrator of the French experimental maneuvering hypersonic aircraft VMAX (Véhicule Maneuverant eXpérimental) was carried out from the DGA test range in Biscarrosse in the south of the Atlantic coast of France. The launch was carried out using a geophysical rocket as an upper stage and declared successful.
The first test launch of the demonstrator of the French experimental maneuvering hypersonic aircraft VMAX (Véhicule Maneuverant eXpérimental) using a geophysical rocket from the test missile range in Biscarrosse, 26.06.2023 (c) the Ministry of the Armed Forces of France
The contrail from the flight of the VMAX spacecraft in the upper atmosphere was visible to a large number of observers in southern France and northern Spain.
The DGA stated that "this flight test, using a variety of implemented technological innovations, has become an unprecedented technical challenge that prepares the future of our national roadmap in the field of hypersound. France is one of the few countries in the world with reliable experience in this field."
The VMAX device was developed and manufactured by ArianeGroup (a joint venture of the Airbus and Safran groups) with the support of the French National Center for Aerospace Research ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales). The appearance and characteristics of the device are not disclosed, but, according to French specialized resources, it is a typical hypersonic gliding unit ("glider") without an engine. The expected speed was referred to by French official sources as "more than 5M" and "more than 6000 km/h".
The VMAX program as a demonstration of the possibilities of creating hypersonic strike weapons in France was first announced in January 2019 by the then Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Florence Parly. Initially, the first launch of the VMAX demonstrator was scheduled for the end of 2021, but in the end it took place a year and a half late.
According to the statement of ArianeGroup's military adviser Admiral Charles-Henri du Che, made some time ago at a hearing in the French National Assembly, the second demonstration sample of a hypersonic glider with improved characteristics called VMAX-2 should make a test flight in 2024-2025. "As soon as we have these two demonstrators, we will be able to say that France will be equipped with this technology, and then the General Staff will have to decide, depending on the requirements, whether there is a need to use it as a weapon or not," he said.
According to speculations in a number of French specialized media, the VMAX device is actually a prototype of a hypersonic strategic planning combat unit with a nuclear charge.
It should be noted that at one time France was one of the leaders in the development of hypersonic technologies, implementing a number of programs in this area in the 1960s. The most technically advanced of them was the VERAS (Véhicule expérimental de recherches aérothermodynamiques et structurales) project, an experimental hypersonic aircraft developed by Nord Aviation in conjunction with the Department of Research and Testing (DRME) of the Armaments Department of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces (DMA, the predecessor of DGA) and ONERA. With a take-off weight of 1500 kg, the VERAS device had to reach a speed of up to 10M. For financial and technical reasons, the VERAS program was stopped in 1971 a few months before the first launch of a prototype of this device using the Diamant-A rocket, scheduled in Biscarross. Subsequently, the developments on VERAS were used in the 1980s and 1990s in the project of the French (European) reusable Hermes spacecraft.
In addition to VMAX, a program for the creation of a promising hypersonic air-launched cruise missile ASN4G (Air Sol Nucleaire 4e génération) with a ramjet engine is also being implemented in France under the leadership of DGA with the lead role of ArianeGroup. The ASN4G missile is intended to replace, from about 2035, the MBDA ASMP-A air-launched cruise missile currently in service in France, also equipped with a RAMJET and having a speed of about 3M. For ASN4G, it is claimed that it is possible to achieve speeds allegedly up to 8M. Hypersonic ramjet (in French terminology, "super-statoréacteur" - "super-ramjet") for ASN4G is jointly developed by ONERA and MBDA.
A full-size mock-up of the French experimental hypersonic aircraft VERAS (Véhicule expérimental de recherches aérothermodynamiques et structurales) developed in the 1960s at the exposition of the Le Bourget Air Show in 1969 (with) Flug Revue
