17 November 2011
Pentagon Tests Hypersonic Flying Bomb
Analysis by Jesse Emspak
Discovery News

Ballistic missiles have been the ultimate in long-range weapons for the last half-century, able to reach almost anyplace on Earth within an hour (sometimes less). On Thursday the U.S. Army tested a bomb that can reach ballistic missile speeds and more importantly, has directional controls.

The Pentagon didn’t give specifics about the weapon’s range or speed. Called the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, or AHW, it was launched from Hawaii and hit a target in Kwajalein Atoll, some 2,500 miles away in about a half hour.

Hypersonic speeds are defined as faster than five times the speed of sound, which is about 768 miles per hour at sea level. If this was truly a hypersonic flight that means the AHW was moving at least 3,800 miles per hour. At that speed it could hit any target on earth in three hours or less. The AHW is part of a program called Prompt Global Strike, and the goal is to build a weapon that can reach its target in an hour or less. The Congressional Research Service reports that some $240 million has been spent on the program so far.

The test was for gathering data on aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies, according to a Department of Defense press release. The weapon is a gliding vehicle, launched a three-stage rocket to suborbital altitude. Unlike a ballistic missile it doesn’t travel in a long parabolic arc. The gliding gives it the ability to steer.

This isn’t the first hypersonic vehicle the military has tested. In August, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency flew a hypersonic glider, launched from a rocket, which was supposed to go from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a 4,000-mile trip. That glider failed and was lost, but it provided valuable data used in the AHW test.

17 November 2011
Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb
AFP

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Thursday held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour.

Launched by rocket from Hawaii at 1130 GMT, the "Advanced Hypersonic Weapon," or AHW, glided through the upper atmosphere over the Pacific "at hypersonic speed" before hitting its target on the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, a Pentagon statement said.

Kwajalein is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii. The Pentagon did not say what top speeds were reached by the vehicle, which unlike a ballistic missile is maneuverable.

Scientists classify hypersonic speeds as those that exceed Mach 5 -- or five times the speed of sound -- 3,728 miles (6,000 kilometers) an hour.

The test aimed to gather data on "aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies," said Lieutenant Colonel Melinda Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The US Army's AHW project is part of the "Prompt Global Strike" program which seeks to give the US military the means to deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within an hour.

On August 11, the Pentagon test flew another hypersonic glider dubbed HTV-2, which is capable of flying 27,000 kilometers per hour, but it was a failure.

The AHW's range is less than that of the HTV-2, the Congressional Research Service said in a report, without providing specifics.

The Pentagon has invested 239.9 million dollars in the Global Strike program this year, including 69 million for the flying bomb tested Thursday, CRS said.

17 November 2011
US Army tests weapon 5 times faster than sound
Associated Press

 
The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, are developing a similar vehicle.
 
The Pentagon said the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, or AHW, vehicle is designed to fly long ranges within the earth's atmosphere at speeds that are at least five times the speed of sound.
 
The objective of yesterday's test was to collect data on technologies that boost the hypersonic vehicle and allow it to glide. The Army was also testing how the vehicle performed in long-range flight.
 
The Congressional Research Service report said the AHW would be able to manoeuvre to avoid flying over third party nations as it approached its target. The weapon would use a precision guidance system to home in on the target, it said.