Friday, December 21, 2018

Hypersonic Future

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Rival powers jockey for the lead in hypersonic aircraft

Experiments in piloted hypersonic flight date back to America's X-15 rocket-plane of the 1960s. And Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) also re-enter the atmosphere at very high hypersonic speeds.

Now rival powers are striving to create weapons that can stay within the atmosphere, without needing to utilise the cooling properties of outer space, and that can be manoeuvred - unlike a static ICBM aimed at a city - towards a target that might be moving itself.

Military spending is driving the hypersonic push by the three big national players.

In a recent Pentagon media briefing Mike White, assistant director for hypersonics in the US military, talked about development being driven by "our great power competitors and their attempts to challenge our domain dominance".

Accuracy is a major challenge for these hypersonic missiles.

Mere possession of hypersonic missiles, dubbed "carrier-killers", might force US aircraft carriers to stay far from the Chinese coast in the mid-Pacific.

But hitting a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier travelling at 30 knots or more (35mph or 56km/h) requires fine adjustments to a missile's course that are tough to achieve at Mach 5.

The heat generated around a missile's skin creates a sheath of plasma, or gaseous matter, at hypersonic speeds.

This can block off signals received from external sources, such as communications satellites and can also blind internal targeting systems trying to see outwards to locate a moving object.

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igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...