Posted on 04/12/2010 5:59:11 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Lockheed Martin has won a contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to explore firing Patriot Advanced Capability-3 anti-ballistic missiles from airplanes. The company said the tests would initially focus on using the Boeing McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle as the launch platform for the PAC-3s. Although the initial $ 3 million funding for the research program is small by the expensive R and D budgets of the BMD programs, its implications could be far reaching. The program is known as the Air-Launched Hit-to-Kill, or ALHTK, initiative. If successful, the program would eventually see U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft equipped with PAC-3s that they could air launch. The speed and range of the F-15s would carry the PAC-3s far closer to their targets than was previously imagined possible and give them a boost of up to around 1,500 miles per hour, or faster than Mach 2, significantly improving their performance and the likelihood that they could intercept and destroy incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"Envisioned to protect the homeland from missile threats, ALHTK could also defend deployed forces," Lockheed Martin said in a statement Tuesday. "A risk assessment contract that concluded in April 2006 identified the feasibility of pursuing this high-payoff concept. The new Risk Reduction/Concept Definition Program will refine the risk, and further define the concept and expected system performance." it said.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
interesting idea
He will either scrap the program or give it to the Russians for a case of Vodka to serve at his Wednesday night cocktail parties.
Makes sense. F-15 was the launch platform for the 1980s ASAT missile test.
This is an absolutely fantastic idea.
Who are you calling an ASAT??
:)
I would love to see if that works
Good ol F-15’s
STILL one of the best machines ever made.
RIP McDonald Douglas. I don’t know what you did to PO the bureaucrats but they killed you.
Obama will hate this idea...
OUT next year! :)
Barry Hussein, of course. Either way you pronounce it, his is one.
I would guess the PAC has a longer range, bigger engagement envelope. But it is a big beast too. Wonder if an F-15 could carry more than one or two of them? (and get up to significant altitude and speed). What's the load-out capability of an F-15 with AMRAAMs? Personally, I think I'd like more shots... But that's just me.
Ping
Can an F-15 do Mach 2 with externals?
The Patriot would be fitted where the F-15C fuel pylon is located. The plane’s sensors will feed fire-control data to the missile. They are looking to attaching the Patriot for the F-16,F-22,and F-35.
Remember, it does carry external fuel tanks and it does go Mach 2 as for as I know. The Patriot missile will be fitted where the fuel tanks are located.
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