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| Boeing X-51 hypersonic cruise missile |
Air Force secretary Heather Wilson discusses new missile system
Chris Riotta New York
The United States is racing to develop hypersonic missiles that can travel at five times the speed of sound, officials have confirmed.
Heather Wilson, secretary of the US Air Force, said the effort was being made to keep pace with other nations like Russia and China while speaking on Friday at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
The US Air Force currently operates 80 satellites in space, the secretary added. Her comments followed reports suggesting Russia was also developing new missile systems after Washington announced plans to exit from a landmark nuclear arms control pact.
Vladimir Putin said over the weekend that Russia has suspended the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which banned both countries from stationing short and intermediate-range land-based missiles in Europe.
Meanwhile, Moscow and Washington have accused each other of violating the treaty and Mr Putin said Russia had acted after the United States announced it was withdrawing from the pact.
Washington had made clear it planned to start research, development and design work on new missile systems and Moscow would do the same, Mr Putin said.
He added the Russian military should start work on creating land-based launch systems for an existing ship-launched cruise missile, the Kalibr, and for longer-range hypersonic missiles.
Russian officials have said the work should be completed by the end of next year so the new systems were ready by 2021.
Still, US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told a UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday that the country would reconsider its withdrawal from the INF treaty “should Russia return to full and verifiable compliance”.
“This is Russia’s final opportunity to return to compliance,” Mr Wood said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Published on Dec 2, 2018
Boeing X-51 Waverider
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| US Air Force |
Mission
The experimental X-51A Waverider is an unmanned, autonomous supersonic combustion ramjet-powered hypersonic flight test demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force.
Features
The X-51A is designed to be launched from an airborne B-52 Stratofortress bomber. The flight test vehicle stack is approximately 25 feet long and includes a modified solid rocket booster from an Army Tactical Missile, a connecting interstage, and the X-51A cruiser. The nearly wingless cruiser is designed to ride its own shockwave, thus the nickname, Waverider. The distinctive, shark-nosed cruiser has small controllable fins and houses the heart of the system, an SJY61 supersonic combustion ramjet or scramjet engine built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne designed to burn JP-7 jet fuel. Boeing's Phantom Works performed overall air vehicle design, assembly and testing for the X-51's various component systems.
The X-51 was made primarily using standard aerospace materials such as aluminum, steel, inconel, and titanium. Some carbon/carbon composites of the leading edges of fins and cowls are used. For thermal protection, the vehicle utilizes a Boeing designed silica-based thermal protection system as well as Boeing Reusable Insulation tiles, similar to those on board the NASA Space Shuttle Orbiters.
Four X-51As were built for the Air Force. The X-51A program is a technology demonstrator and was not designed to be a prototype for weapon system. It was designed to pave the way to future hypersonic weapons, hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and future access to space. Since scramjets are able to burn atmospheric oxygen, they don't need to carry large fuel tanks containing oxidizer like conventional rockets, and are being explored as a way to more efficiently launch payloads into orbit.
In addition to scalable scramjet propulsion, other key technologies that will be demonstrated by the X-51A include thermal protection systems materials, airframe and engine integration, and high-speed stability and control.
Source: www.af.mil
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