Brumby
Major
Introduction
2019 became a defining year for US hypersonics. It is the year when it finally woke up from its slumber on the threat of hypersonics after having its butt kicked by the Russians and Chinese with their respective progress in fielding hypersonic weapons.
2019 saw announcements and funding of so many different programs that it became difficult just to keep track of them given the common use of acronyms. This thread is to provide it the appropriate space in reporting the progress of the different programs as 2020 and beyond will see significant activities.
There are however two main programs under the overall umbrella of US hypersonics as they include both offensive programs and counter programs i.e. defensive. Currently the offensive programs probably lead the counter programs by approximately 3 to 5 years in terms of the technological development ladder. This thread will report on both of these major programs as information become available.
The U.S. has committed to an upcoming four-year test campaign covering 40 flights and three basic vehicle concepts. They will lay the foundation for a comprehensive hypersonic weapon road map. A quarter of the tests, representing as many as 10 flights, will be focused on air-breathing scramjet-powered vehicles. The rest of the tests will be from both boosted glide vehicle flights and powered missiles. Collectively they will form the basis for an integrated development plan. The overarching road map will also include the integration of a counter hypersonic development strategy.
Summary of known programs and their funding
Known programs are only reported below as there are classified programs that for obvious reasons will not be covered.
Planned spending by year
The main thrust of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s counter-hypersonic strategy has just been revealed on December 5, 2019. The immediate emphasis is through the Regional Glide Phase Weapon System (RGPWS) prototype project to demonstrate an interception capability against a medium- or intermediate-range threat. This is probably in response to the Russian Advangard program and the Chinese DF-17 development. MDA’s latest effort with the RGPWS shows that it is moving faster to field at least a prototype counter-hypersonic capability than previous efforts suggested.
MDA down selected from initial 21 proposals to five concepts in late August and early September 2019 for a subsequent refinement phase. The selected proposals included four kinetic concepts based on existing boosters and one directed energy system.
2019 became a defining year for US hypersonics. It is the year when it finally woke up from its slumber on the threat of hypersonics after having its butt kicked by the Russians and Chinese with their respective progress in fielding hypersonic weapons.
2019 saw announcements and funding of so many different programs that it became difficult just to keep track of them given the common use of acronyms. This thread is to provide it the appropriate space in reporting the progress of the different programs as 2020 and beyond will see significant activities.
There are however two main programs under the overall umbrella of US hypersonics as they include both offensive programs and counter programs i.e. defensive. Currently the offensive programs probably lead the counter programs by approximately 3 to 5 years in terms of the technological development ladder. This thread will report on both of these major programs as information become available.
The U.S. has committed to an upcoming four-year test campaign covering 40 flights and three basic vehicle concepts. They will lay the foundation for a comprehensive hypersonic weapon road map. A quarter of the tests, representing as many as 10 flights, will be focused on air-breathing scramjet-powered vehicles. The rest of the tests will be from both boosted glide vehicle flights and powered missiles. Collectively they will form the basis for an integrated development plan. The overarching road map will also include the integration of a counter hypersonic development strategy.
Summary of known programs and their funding
Known programs are only reported below as there are classified programs that for obvious reasons will not be covered.
Planned spending by year
The main thrust of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s counter-hypersonic strategy has just been revealed on December 5, 2019. The immediate emphasis is through the Regional Glide Phase Weapon System (RGPWS) prototype project to demonstrate an interception capability against a medium- or intermediate-range threat. This is probably in response to the Russian Advangard program and the Chinese DF-17 development. MDA’s latest effort with the RGPWS shows that it is moving faster to field at least a prototype counter-hypersonic capability than previous efforts suggested.
MDA down selected from initial 21 proposals to five concepts in late August and early September 2019 for a subsequent refinement phase. The selected proposals included four kinetic concepts based on existing boosters and one directed energy system.