World developments in hypersound. Catching up with Russia is virtually impossible

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Pentagon is allocating nearly $ 1 billion to build a hypersonic missile system for the US Air Force. Defense company Lockheed Martin will be engaged in development. This was reported by the press service of the US Air Force. Earlier in the United States, they have repeatedly stated concerns about Russia's leadership in the field of hypersound.

Washington was particularly concerned about the Dagger and Avangard systems presented on March 1, 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a message to the Federal Assembly. whether the latest American developments will be able to compete with modern Russian weapons.

New attempt

The US Air Force will allocate almost $ 1 billion for the development of a hypersonic missile system, the press service of the US Air Force said on the eve. The contractor will be the defense corporation Lockheed Martin.

The timing of the availability of test samples has not yet been announced. The amount of the contract may also change, said Anne Stefanek, a spokesman for the US Air Force. The main goal of the partnership with Lockheed is to "accelerate hypersonic research and development."

Hypersound is considered to be a supersonic speed exceeding five Mach numbers, or about 6000 km / h.

The Lockheed Martin deal is far from the first US Air Force investment in hypersonic development. Since 2015, contracts for the creation of such a missile system have already been received by the same company Lockheed Martin and another American defense giant, Raytheon.

The money was allocated as part of the Tactical Boost Glide program, a joint project of the US Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

In 2016, Lockheed Martin was reported to have allocated $ 146 million to work on the project. According to DARPA, the prototype is expected to be built in 2022-2023. At the same time, the US Air Force and DARPA are jointly developing hypersonic jet-powered weapons. In 2016, Raytheon received a $ 174.7 million contract for the project.

Talks about accelerated development of hypersonic weapons in the United States go back to the time of the emergence of the concept of "rapid global strike", which was discussed in the administration of George W. Bush. Then all branches of the armed forces announced their plans for hypersound. On land it was the AHW system, at sea - the ArcLight rocket, and in the air - the Falcon HTV-2 complex. However, only AHW and HTV-2 reached flight tests. The army's hypersonic system was successfully tested in 2011. But already in 2014, at the next stage of testing, problems arose. Tests of the HTV-2 apparatus in 2010-2011 were also unsuccessful.

"The barrier of 5000 km / h for the Americans was overcome only by the X-51 Waverider missile," said Alexei Leonkov, commercial director of the magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland".

Boeing passed relatively successful tests of this development in 2013.

"The Americans on this project stated that the first test flight will take place in the 2020s, however, after reports of the availability of such weapons in our country, the dates have shifted to 2019," the expert said.

In addition to missile systems, US defense companies are also developing hypersonic strike and reconnaissance drones. So, in early April, NASA allocated $ 247.5 million to Lockheed Martin for the construction of a new hypersonic aircraft. Another development of the company is the SR-72 strike and reconnaissance drone, a prototype of which is planned to be presented by the early 2030s. In turn, the Boeing company at the Sky Tech exhibition in the UAE in 2018 showed its model of a hypersonic strike complex, without providing, however, any technical data on the project.

"The nearest hypersonic device in the form of a rocket may appear in the Americans closer to 2025, and the first test sample of something similar to our Avangard by 2030," Leonkov said.

The end of the global strike

On the eve of the serious problems in the development of hypersonic weapons, the head of the Strategic Command of the US Armed Forces, General John Hayten, announced

Speaking on April 18, 2018 at the 34th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, the American military leader admitted that previous tests of the US hypersonic complexes "were not entirely successful." Hayten also noted that Russia and China are successfully developing in this area.

“You have to trust Vladimir Putin about everything he claims he is working on,” the American general said.

On March 1, 2018, the Russian President presented the latest Russian weapons to the public as part of his message to the Federal Assembly. Among them were developments in the field of hypersound - the Kinzhal aviation missile system, which develops a speed of over 10,000 km / h, and the Avangard ground-based mobile missile system with hypersonic gliding units, which can fly twice as fast as the Dagger. As Vladimir Putin reported, the "Dagger" entered service with the Russian Aerospace Forces on December 1, 2017. Avangard should be on alert no later than 2019.

A month before Putin's speech, on January 30, 2018, the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Paul Selva, said that the United States had "lost its technical superiority in the field of hypersound." In turn, on March 6, 2018, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Development emphasized that hypersound is now "the main technical priority for the department." In the draft US military budget for 2019, it is planned to increase funding for developments of this kind by 136% - up to $ 256.7 million.

“We are moving forward - both by hypersound, and by means of air defense and missile defense,” explained Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis. - New weapons are a war of technologies, a war of promising developments. The US defense industry complex, our defense industry complex, the defense industry complex of a number of other developed countries compete with each other, including for the seizure of military markets."

According to Leonkov, senior US military officials are concerned that Russia's leadership is dramatically changing the global balance of power and disrupting the military plans of the United States.

“Now all the US Armed Forces are being reformed under the concept of a“rapid global strike,”the expert suggested.

The main meaning of this concept is to defeat the enemy anywhere in the world even before the deployment of his main forces and means. At the same time, as Leonkov notes, an important role in the outcome of such a war should be played by the global missile defense system created by the United States, designed to protect the United States. However, according to the same General John Hayten, the United States is currently unable to defend against hypersonic weapons.

“After our president spoke on March 1, he actually nullified this doctrine, made it useless. Our new complexes are guaranteed to overcome all missile defense and air defense systems and are guaranteed to hit the territory of the aggressor, Leonkov stressed.

They like to play with impunity

“The Americans, if they know that they will be retaliated against, do not play any further. They love to play with impunity,”says Leonkov.

According to the expert, it is no coincidence that the Russian military doctrine speaks not of a retaliatory strike, but of a retaliatory strike.

“We are now completing the deployment of two systems: control of outer space and control of missile launches, which allows us to quickly calculate the aggressor and strike at him, even when his missiles are in the air,” the expert noted.

The possibility of a retaliatory strike, according to the political scientist, is the best means of deterring the aggression of the United States, which is accustomed to fighting a weak enemy without danger to its territory.

“As for the threats from the United States, we are ahead of the Americans in air defense systems,” says Alexander Mikhailov.

So, the Russian air defense and missile defense system S-500, which should enter service with the Russian Aerospace Forces in the 2020s, is also designed to combat hypersonic targets.

In addition, according to Leonkov, Washington will find it difficult to catch up with Moscow in terms of strike capabilities.

“It will be very difficult to catch up with Russia quickly, practically impossible,” the expert noted. "Seeing that the Americans will develop hypersonic systems, we will not stand still either."

This imbalance, he said, will affect US policy as well.

"In 2030, these complexes will already be in service with us, and they will only be put into service, and these 12 years, until 2030, the Americans will need to behave so as not to get involved in some kind of mess," he stressed Leonkov.

The expert noted that Russia is pursuing "a fairly clear policy of a multipolar world," which means that after a while, hypersonic complexes, even if they appear in the United States, will no longer play such an important role as they could play now.

"During this time, such complexes may appear in other countries, and someone will acquire nuclear weapons, like North Korea," concluded Leonkov.