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By: - 12th August 2011 at 01:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Two vehicles in a three week span is not a happy time. :(
By: - 12th August 2011 at 06:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The bad things always come together, and nothing goes right when the lock is bad.......
Raptor's accident and grounding.
--> Boeing lost MMRCA competition.
--> Boeing lost commercial airplane sale to Airbus during the Paris Airshow.
--> New problem and delay for F-35 project.
--> US debt crisis and S&P downgrade.
--> USN will lose one operational aircraft carrier group (From ten to nine).
--> USAF loses prototype hypersonic bomber.
--> The Pentagon is facing 350 billion USDs defense cut in the next ten years......
By: - 12th August 2011 at 07:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Interesting...I wasn't too aware of this project until they started talking about it on Fox News today. Needless to say it caught my attention. The idea of a hypersonic bomber makes one shudder when you think about how quickly you could bring weapons to bear on a target...
By: - 12th August 2011 at 07:33 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I don't shudder as it is a cost effective method of having a deterrent
I don't shudder as it is a cost effective method of having a deterrent
They will succeed as being unmanned for many fixed targets reduces the cost immensely and also provides the option of a controlled detonation of the craft before strike occurs if threat is removed by alien power.
The equivalent of the Cold War is back although some of the potential adversaries may have altered.
Keeping the technology seriously under wraps is the biggest challenge.
Bettering the strike time (to under an hour) will have it's steep cost curve though.
By: - 12th August 2011 at 08:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
--> The Pentagon is facing 350 billion USDs defense cut in the next ten years......
Thought that figure was $800 B in 10 years ?
By: - 12th August 2011 at 09:35 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Is it a Bomber?
I definitely think it's not. It's not even a prototype, but a testvehicle whose technology cold, but in many many years, be used in a bomber.
By: - 12th August 2011 at 09:53 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Look on the bright side, they've discovered another way how not to build a hypersonic bomber :)
By: - 12th August 2011 at 10:05 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Hypersonic
Whats the fastest speed you can drop weapons?!!!
By: - 12th August 2011 at 10:53 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
--> USN will lose one operational aircraft carrier group (From ten to nine).
This cut doesn't actually impact the active carrier fleet.
By: - 12th August 2011 at 19:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It seems to me that the Pentagon has simply discovered another way of spending the US taxpayers money on a another futile project.
Regards
By: - 12th August 2011 at 22:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
--> USN will lose one operational aircraft carrier group (From ten to nine).This cut doesn't actually impact the active carrier fleet.
When CVN-65 Enterprise is decommissioned next year* the total number of USN CVNs will drop from 11 to 10.
Since there is always a CVN in RCOH (refuel and complex overhaul... essentially a mid-life modernization that takes ~23 years), there is only need for 10 (9 from 2012) carrier air wings and carrier group staffs.
Currently, the number of carriers will rebound to 11 when CVN-78 Ford commissions in 2015... but there is serious talk about keeping the CVN fleet at 10 by slowing the build rate of the Ford class and retiring CVN-68 Nimitz early.
That would keep the required number of carrier air wings and carrier group staffs at 9.
*Last month CVN-65 returned from what the USN described as "her last combat deployment". Her decommissioning is authorized "in FY2013"... which means between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013.
By: - 13th August 2011 at 01:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It seems to me that the Pentagon has simply discovered another way of spending the US taxpayers money on a another futile project.
Yes...let's stop development on anything new and concentrate on what we know. Surely with this train of thought we will always be prepared and have everything ready. More imporantly,it will be cost effective.....
By: - 13th August 2011 at 09:35 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It seems to me that the Pentagon has simply discovered another way of spending the US taxpayers money on a another futile project.Regards
It could be a start of a policy shift in United States. Reduce expenditure on oversees bases and have a capability to strike anywhere on planet within couple of hours from within the United States boundaries. Something along those lines.
By: - 13th August 2011 at 15:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It could be a start of a policy shift in United States. Reduce expenditure on oversees bases and have a capability to strike anywhere on planet within couple of hours from within the United States boundaries. Something along those lines.
They could have learn from the Chinese and make ASBM. :D
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By: slipperysam - 11th August 2011 at 23:52
The US military has lost contact with an experimental hypersonic plane after it was launched yesterday on only its second test flight.
The unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle [HTV2], designed as a global bomber prototype, is capable of travelling at 20 times the speed of sound and was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force base in California aboard a Minotaur IV rocket.
But after the plane separated from the rocket in the upper reaches of the atmosphere for its "glide" phase, contact was lost, according to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA].
"Range assets have lost telemetry with HTV2," DARPA wrote in a Twitter post after the launch.
The agency provided no other details about the flight or how long it had been separated from the rocket.
Last year, scientists lost contact with the HTV2 after nine minutes in its inaugural flight.
The hypersonic plane, which is supposed to travel at Mach 20 (21,000 kilometres per hour), could potentially provide the US military with a platform for striking targets anywhere on the planet within minutes using conventional weapons.
The weapon which is still in development, is part of what the US Air Force has dubbed "prompt global strike" capability.
"The ultimate goal is a capability that can reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour," DARPA said on its website.
In theory, the Falcon could travel between New York City and Los Angeles, a distance of 4,500 kilometres, in less than 12 minutes.
Unlike a ballistic missile, a hypersonic vehicle could manoeuvre and avoid flying along a predictable path which means it would not be mistaken for a nuclear missile.
But Mr Loren Thompson, an analyst at Lexington Institute with links to the defence industry says there was still much work to be done before the hypersonic bomber becomes a reality.
"The military has a long way to go before hypersonic vehicles are ready for deployment," Mr Thompson said.
The test flight plan called for the Falcon to eventually roll and dive into the Pacific Ocean.
AFP