Hypersonic Weapons Could Hit Battlefield by 2025

Space.com ^ | 20 May 2013 Time: 07:00 AM ET | Mike Wall,

[BenLurkin]

High-tech weapons may be screaming through the skies at five times the speed of sound by the middle of the next decade, U.S. military officials say.

That's the most optimistic timeline for the battlefied debut of a superfast new strike capability, officials said, and it depends on continued research into hypersonic vehicles like the Air Force's X-51A Waverider, which completed its final test flight earlier this month.

The Air Force is "trying to get the technologies mature enough that in the 2020 timeframe we would like to be able to show the warfighter that we would be ready to start a development program of record sometime around that time," said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate

Typical cruise missiles travel at around 500 to 600 mph (800 to 965 km/h), Brink said. There are obvious advantages to ramping up to hypersonic flight, which is generally defined as anything that reaches at least Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. (The speed of sound at sea level is about 762 mph, or 1,226 km/h.)

[Red in Blue PA]

Much sooner than 2025 all weapons will be turned on any Conservative who stands by the Constitution.

[ought-six]

The Democrats will sell the technology to the muzz and Chinese in exchange for campaign contributions.

[EternalVigilance]

Luke 12

4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

[Carbonsteel]

This is about the time Democrats either sell the tech to our enemies or cancel R&D and shelve the project all together.

Could be both.

[Norm Lenhart]

No, since a mach 5 weapon hits with hellacious kinetic energy, the UN will impose a speed limit on weapons since their use is unfair to minority countries that cannot make them.

All response in war must not be anything but equal.

[knarf]

I remember studies during WW2 about sound blasters ... big friggin' noise makers that rip the ears of an enemy some distance away.

Now we have laser technology and I don't care WHAT kind of weapon you may have ... if your ears are bleeding, the pain is blinding and you're done .. period.