Posted on 07/01/2003 7:22:07 AM PDT by areafiftyone
The United States is planning to build an unmanned hypersonic aircraft capable of striking any target in the world within two hours.
The initial description of the concept - called the "reusable hypersonic cruise vehicle" (HCV) - has recently been placed on the website of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). A conference of companies interested in the project is to be held soon.
The idea is that the HCV would take off from a conventional airfield in the continental United States carrying a 12,000 pound (5,500 kilogram) payload.
This payload would be made up from a variety of munitions, including cruise missiles and a new "glide bomb" dropped from space, called a Common Aero Vehicle (Cav).
The HCV air/spacecraft could be operational by 2025
Advanced capability
Darpa says: "This capability would free the US military from reliance on forward basing to enable it to react promptly and decisively to destabilising or threatening actions by hostile countries and terrorist organisations."
It appears that the philosophy is a development of the "shock and awe" tactics developed for the Iraq war.
According to Darpa "The intent is to hold adversary vital interests at risk at all times, counter anti-access threats, serve as a halt phase shock force and conduct suppression of enemy air-defence and lethal strike missions as part of integrated strategic campaigns in the Twenty First Century."
In other words the United States will be able, using aircraft based on its own territory, to strike at individual targets without warning and without the need for foreign bases.
The whole project goes under the acronym Falcon - Force Application and Launch from the Continental United States.
The military journal Jane's Defence Weekly says that as well as this futuristic plan, the Research Agency also proposes a shorter term (by 2010) weapons system.
It would be based on what is known as a "Small Launch Vehicle" (SLV) which would blast into space carrying the Common Aero Vehicle.
This is essentially a bomb dropped from space which then freefalls or glides onto its target.
It is officially described as "an unpowered, manoeuvrable, hypersonic glide vehicle capable of carrying approximately 1,000 pounds (453 kg) of munitions." Its range would be about 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres) and it would be accurate to within 3 metres.
It would be going so fast that its small warhead would not matter much since it would hit the target with such force.
There are plans to make the SLV capable of launching small satellites into orbit at very short notice in order to respond to a specific crisis.
New technology sought
The plan is being developed in response to what are seen as the inadequacies of the current technology, which, though smart, are not smart enough.
Darpa says: "Recent military engagements in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq have underscored both the capabilities and limitations of US air forces in terms of placing ordnance on military targets.
"Moreover, the current and future international political environment severely constrains this country's ability to conduct long-range strike missions on high-value time-critical targets from outside CONUS [the continental United States]."
The plan is that the first Cav flight should take place in 2006 and the SLV in 2007 with the first test flight of both together in 2009.
But apparently there is a reason we need a new delivery system.
Well, an ICBM is a huge and costly affair just to deliver a few pounds of payload. The new system(s) seem to be aimed at being mostly reusable.
It takes a man...
If you remove the man from the vehicle, it becomes smaller, cheaper, more manuverable, dispensible, replicable, personnel costs become cheaper. A squadron of drones can sit partially assembled in a hangar for years, and need little maintenance, zero training and be fully functional in a short time. A squadron of manned vehicles need highly trained extremely fit air-crews, that need constant training, hence constant flying with the requsite fuel and maintenance costs plus maintenance crews etc.
ICBMs are limited in flexibility. Easy to hit with an ABM, and cannot be recalled when the red phone jangles.
Pournelle and others on a team at Boeing in the 60s proposed kinetic energy weapons in orbit. Basically a bundle of "crowbars," dense metal rods with some ablative re-entry on the tip and just enough brains and steering ability to recognize and drop on the thing that was being targeted. He used them, or his Alien attackers did (very effectively), against Kansas National Guard tanks in Footall.
Thor would involve a projectile of around 27kg, traveling at orbital velocity, around 8,000 meters per second. The kinetic energy would therefore equal 864 mega joules, or over 200 kg or TNT (I got the math from the "Voyage to Arcturus" blog: http://avoyagetoarcturus.blogspot.com/2003_04_01_avoyagetoarcturus_archive.html).
You could loft a whole lot of these with any of the proposed systems on a moments notice. Put them in orbit with some maneuvering ability before release and every 90 minutes or so you'd have the option of dropping them over just about anybody you wanted to. How about a bundle of 1,000 of these things dropping on a massed Iranian army? An Al Qaeda traning compound? The DN... no, that would be wrong...
I've worked extensively with the services and DoD--let me translate this for everybody:
"The idea is that Boeing is getting eaten alive by Airbus and we want to find a way to give them money. We will tailor the initial requirements so that only Boeing can meet them as in Requirement One: Lead System Integrator will have a name starting with a 'B' and ending with 'ing'.
Once Boeing bids the contract at a price, the Gov will give them exactly half of that price. All requirements of the program will then be waived except Requirement One.
The final product will take off only from a very specialized airstrip with very special facilities (Edwards AFB only) and will carry the payload of a teacup. Its range will be slightly longer than the length of the runway.
A loop of it taking off for a 'test hop' will be shown over and over and the Air Force and DoD will claim it is a breakthrough, 'revolutionizing' warfare--while all the guys who operate it and maintain it know it is a dog."
I am losing faith that the Big Fine American Defense Contractors (BFADs) can even produce an actual operational major acquisition program. We haven't had one in about 12 years....
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