The DARPA Arc Lite Program
From globalsecurity.org:
ArcLight
The ArcLight program will design, build, and flight test a long range (> 2,000 nm) vehicle that carries a 100-200 lb payload(s). ArcLight is based on an SM-3 Block II booster stack, a hypersonic glider and is capable of being launched from a Mark 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) tube. The development of the ArcLight system will enable high speed, long range weapons capable of engaging time critical targets and can be launched from Naval surface and sub-surface assets, and Naval/Air Force air assets.
The primary intent of the ArcLight Program is to design, build and flight test boost/glide vehicles that have the following goals:
■ Range 2000 nautical miles
■ Flight time of up to 30 minutes
■ Carry 100 lb minimum payload
■ Compatible for launch from a standard Mk 41 VLS, when integrated with the system
■ Survivable in defended airspace.
On 07 July 2010 DARPA\TTO announced [DARPA-BAA-10-63] Phase I of the ArcLight program to significantly advance enabling technologies for high speed, long range strike weapons. ArcLight is a demonstration program to design, build and flight test a boost/glide vehicle capable of carrying a 100-200 pound payload over a 2,000 nautical miles range in approximately 30 minutes. The operational version of the boost/glide vehicle will be launched from a Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) compatible booster stack. Demonstration of this vehicle will make it possible for the US Navy capability to engage tactical, long range, time critical, threats to the US with conventional weapons and provide the Air Force with a long range, time critical strike capability.
There are currently 8,500 VLS tubes in the US Navy including those based on cruisers (CG-47), destroyers (DDG-51) and submarines (SSN, SSGN). Deploying operational systems with an ArcLight Vehicle as the payload on Navy platforms will offer a game changing warfare capability. The ability for worldwide coverage from several ships reduces the need for having less capable strike assets forward deployed and enables tactical and political flexibility. The cost of launching a comparable strike from CONUS is significant, likely to limit use of such a system and provides an opportunity for adversaries to observe launches from fixed sites. Based on compelling results from feasibility studies and a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), DARPA believes this program will be a ground breaking way for the Navy and Air Force to engage deployed, time-critical targets.
The primary intent of the ArcLight program is to design a boost/glide vehicle, the ArcLight Demonstration Vehicle (ALDV), which is to be built and integrated with an off-the-shelf surrogate booster in Phase III, and launch it as the ArcLight Demonstration System (ALDS). Multiple teams will launch an ALDS in Phase III of the program to demonstrate the capability. In parallel, the program will track an ArcLight Operation System (ALOS) with an ArcLight Operational Vehicle (ALOV) as a payload for an Mk 41 VLS compatible system to ensure the ALDV has traceability to a system to be fielded. DARPA expects that prime proposers will have in-house expertise in the area of hypersonic flight, including associated vehicle design, trajectory analysis with guidance navigation and control, high temperature materials and ability for assembly, integration and test of their ALDV.
ArcLight Phase I will first focus on the design of an ALOS with primary emphasis on the conceptual design of the ALOV. This activity should include trade studies on technologies that might increase the range of the ALOS. At the completion of the trade studies the ALOS and ALOV should undergo a Conceptual Design Review (CoDR).
Following the CoDR for the operational systems, the work should focus on the design of the ALDV, maintaining traceability to the operational system. In addition, the ArcLight program will not support the development of new technology for the booster stack, but, rather is focused upon the enabling technologies and development of the ALDV as its payload. Effort to characterize the booster stack will only be permitted to a level that is sufficient for design and definition of the ALOS and ALOV. Likewise, the only propulsion efforts that will be considered part of the program are those that apply to the ALOV or ALDV’s portion of the trajectory. ArcLight will also not fund the development of Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC), sensors\seekers, Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) or the ALOV payload, however, technologies that would offer tremendous improvement in capability, with potential for development in future programs, should be identified.
DARPA desires that performers use their ALOS conceptual designs to develop a Concept of Operations (CONOPs) and a Military Utility Analysis (MUA). DARPA expects this effort not to exceed 10% of the total effort in Phase I. The MUA should be developed to the point that the performers demonstrate the capability and survivability of their ALOV when faced with defended airspace in a relevant threat environment.
In Phase II, Technical Area One performers will concentrate on further refining their ALDV designs and performing the necessary testing in arcjet and aero thermal wind tunnels to substantiate a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) at the end of the phase. Full scale testing of the actuation systems and validation of the program performance goals is expected. Performers will also further develop the design maturity of their ALDS and work with the Government team to identify surrogate launch boosters, test ranges and other requirements for a successful test in Phase III.
In Phase III, Technical Area One performers will progressively mature ALDV design and technology to a Critical Design Level, manufacture a boost/glide vehicle, participate in integration of the boost/glide vehicle with a surrogate launch vehicle, and flight test at relevant conditions. The Program Office intends to manage procurement of the launch vehicles, launch range access and support, data collection assets, and integration of the ALDVs with the launch vehicles for the flight testing in Phase III.
And this, from Aviation Week & Science Technology:
Darpa Eyes SM-3 For Hypersonic Strike
Feb 4, 2010
By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is seeking funding in Fiscal 2011 for ArcLight, a program to flight-test a long-range, high-speed strike weapon based on the Raytheon SM-3 ballistic-missile interceptor.
ArcLight will be based on an SM-3 Block II booster stack and a hypersonic glider, and designed to carry a 100-200 pound payload more than 2,000 nautical miles. The weapon will be compatible with the Mark 41 vertical launch system and capable of launch from U.S. Navy warships and submarines as well as Air Force assets.
The program is getting under way in Fiscal 2010 with $2 million in funding to conduct feasibility testing of new materials. The $5 million sought in 2011 would cover testing of key technologies and begin concept development.
Darpa is seeking a total budget of $3.1 billion in Fiscal 2011, up from $2.99 billion in 2010. This includes $303 million for advanced aerospace systems, such as ArcLight, an increase from the $258 million provided in 2010.
Funding sought includes $67.6 million for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program, to cover wind tunnel, propulsion and seeker testing and begin building flight-test vehicles. Lockheed Martin has contracts to study two LRASM concepts: one high, fast and ramjet-powered; one low, slow and highly stealthy.
Darpa is a seeking $60 million in 2011 to flight-test a subscale demonstrator for the Vulture extreme-endurance solar-powered stratospheric unmanned surveillance aircraft, and $43.4 million to begin building a subscale demonstrator for the Isis radar-carrying unmanned stratospheric airship.
Another $35 million is sought for the Mode Transition program to fund the ground-test of a turbojet/scramjet turbine-based combined-cycle engine to power a hypersonic aircraft or air-breathing launch vehicle.
New programs planned to start in 2011 include Responsive, Reliable Access to Space, with $7 million sought to develop reusable vehicle concepts, “which may include leveraging of commercial sector investments,” Darpa says.
Another planned new program is Counter-Unmanned Air Vehicles (C-UAV), with $5.1 million sought in 2011 to assess current threats and viable approaches to detecting small, slow, low-altitude UAVs.
Darpa is seeking funding increases in Fiscal 2011 for several programs, including $12.1 million to initiate design of the roadworthy vertical-takeoff-and-landing Transformer Vehicle; $11.8 million to begin design of the Mission Adaptive Rotor demonstrator; and $1.3 million for flight-tests to investigate the drag-reduction benefits of formation flight.
Photo: DoD
And this, also from Aviation Week:
Time-Critical Strike in a Tube
Posted by Graham Warwick at 7/13/2010 2:07 PM CDT
DARPA may still be working out what went wrong with the April 22 launch of the HTV-2 hypersonic glider by a Minotaur IV booster, but it's pushing ahead with plans for its little brother, ArcLight.
ArcLight aims to demonstrate technology for a high-speed, long-range strike weapon consisting of a hypersonic boost/glide vehicle fired from the US Navy's standard Mk41 vertical launch system (VLS). The vehicle would carry a 100-200lb payload 2,000nm in 30min.
Inviting proposals for Phase 1, DARPA says deploying ArcLight in some of the 8,500 VLS tubes across the Navy's cruisers, destroyers and submarines would give it the ability to strike time-critical targets at long range, and reduce the need for forward-based strike forces.
ArcLight is focusing only on the hypersonic glider and wing materials and not looking at how such a weapon would be targeted and guided, but performers will have to develop a concept of operations for an operational vehicle, and conduct an analysis to demonstrate its capability and survivability in defended airspace.
Phase 1 will cover conceptual design of the operational vehicle and preliminary design of a demonstrator, which would be launched by a surrogate booster - DARPA's ArcLight website identifies the Standard SM-3 Block II booster stack. Arcjet and aerothermal windtunnel testing would follow in Phase 2 and flight test in Phase 3. Multiple teams will launch demonstrators, the agency says.
The requirement to fit atop a booster that is compatible with the VLS tube, and uses the existing Mk72 first stage from the Standard missile booster, puts a tight constraint of the size and shape of the AcrLight glider.
Also in Phase 1, DARPA separately plans to award contracts to develop high-temperature materials that enable a hypersonic glider with high lift/drag ratio and control authority. That implies a sharp-edged vehicle, like HTV-2. The solicitation specifies materials "that can change shape or harden post launch and withstand the flight environment".
And this, from The Register:
Pentagon looks to revive Nazi space-bomber plan
Pocket 'Antipodes raid' hyper-smartmissiles sought
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author
Posted in Physics, 22nd April 2010 15:27 GMT
Free whitepaper – Data Center Projects
The US military appears to have temporarily given up on exotic scramjet powered hyper-plane and -missile notions for the purpose of suddenly blowing things up at short notice anywhere in the world. Rather, Pentagon boffins are now re-examining a plan once considered by the Nazis for the purpose of bombing America.
Ha - Take that, Amerikaner pigdogs! What do you mean, they didn't notice?
The boffins in question are our old friends at DARPA, the US military asylum for mad scientists, who see further into the future of warfare by standing on the shoulders of giants - if necessary, immense robot colossi or genetically engineered titanoid abominations of their own manufacture. In this case, however, they seem to be following a more conventional Isaac Newton-style policy of basing their work on that of great past practitioners in their field.
Very few groups have been more illustrious in the field of mad futuristic weapons than the Nazi rocketeers of World War II, and thus it is no surprise to find DARPA making a new push to resurrect one of their notions: that of the Boost-Glide extra-atmospheric suborbital weapons platform.
German boffins of the 1940s developed detailed plans (pdf) for a so-called Silbervogel ("Silver Bird") rocket bomber which would have soared high into space and then travelled many thousands of miles by skipping like a flung stone on water around the top of the atmosphere. It was thought by its designers that the amazing machine might be able to circumnavigate the globe like this, dropping off a bomb en route as it sailed above America; or at any rate make a landing in Japanese-held territory after such a raid. These abilities led to it being dubbed the "antipodal bomber" in some circles.
The Silbervogel plan was considered as part of Nazi aspirations to mount strikes against the USA - the so called "Amerika Bomber" project - but never actually flew. However the plans caused a good deal of activity by the rival superpowers after the war: perhaps most famously the X-20 Dyna-Soar project in the US, which would have used a Silbervogel-esque flight profile for global strike or surveillance missions. The X-20 would have launched vertically atop a conventional throwaway rocket; its Nazi predecessor was to be fired into the air by a powerful rocket catapult/sled affair running on rails.
In the event the X-20 didn't get off the ground either, but a rather less well-known Boost/Glide platform eventually did, namely the unmanned Boost Glide Re-entry Vehicle test of 1968. The BGRV lifted into space from Vandenberg airforce base in California atop an Atlas F missile rocket and re-entered over the Pacific, eventually splashing down in the vicinity of Wake Island some 3,000 miles away.
Next page: Project Arc Light rides again? What, you mean the one from Vietnam?
Pentagon looks to revive Nazi space-bomber plan
Pocket 'Antipodes raid' hyper-smartmissiles sought
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author
Posted in Physics, 22nd April 2010 15:27 GMT
Free whitepaper – Ten Errors to Avoid When Commissioning a Data Center
Project Arc Light rides again? What, you mean the one from Vietnam?
In general, though, the mission of global strategic strike is already well covered by more conventional ICBMs, as global surveillance is by spy satellites. But a nuclear-armed ICBM is a rather unsubtle tool, and even one fitted with a smaller conventional warhead would tend to cause global panic as it lifted off and streaked around the world to its destination - not to mention being rather expensive for routine use against modern Wars-on-Stuff type targets such as suddenly-emerging terrorist bigwigs or similar.
But more reasonable existing kit like submarine- or warship-launched cruise missiles or jets loaded with smart bombs is no good either. These things can take hours to arrive at the spot marked X, by which time the elusive terrorist, stolen WMD or whatever may have melted away again.
What's wanted, according to DARPA, is something which would fit into a US naval Mark 41 vertical launch tube of the sort used to pop off existing slowpoke Tomahawk cruise missiles. But it would have to carry a much smaller and more surgical 100-lb warhead, which would travel enormously faster - a minimum of 9,200 miles per hour, the equivalent of Mach 12 if we were talking about travel at sea level.
Mach 12 is far, far into the regime of hypersonics, faster than even the most exotic hydrogen-fuelled scramjets have yet flown. Such a missile could never be put into a Mark 41 launcher even if it could one day be built. DARPA's previous plan for a Mach 6 aeroplane running on normal fuel was cancelled on grounds that nobody really thought it was possible, and the ongoing X-51 WaveRider scramjet test vehicles - now delayed into this year - aren't expected to go faster.
But with the newly-announced "ArcLight" programme, DARPA aren't talking about flight in the atmosphere at all. Instead, a less ambitious BGRV type of effort is requested, with a smallish naval launch tube type rocket firing the pocket, unmanned Silbervogel/X-20 into space followed by hypersonic re-entry no more than 2,000 miles away. The US Navy's 8,500 Mark 41 tubes, distributed around the world aboard its cruisers, destroyers and submarines, should thus more or less blanket the planet with ArcLight coverage able to deliver an unstoppable 100-lb hypersonic warhead in less than half an hour from go.
On the face of it the idea seems fairly likely to be possible: Mark 41 tubes are used to launch SM-3 ballistic missile interceptors, which are well-known to be capable of sending small "kill vehicles" into space at hypersonic-equivalent velocities. Presumably it would be feasible to replace the kill vehicle on an SM-3 with a BGRV style hypersonic mini-smartbomb style affair, finally - in a small way - bringing to fruition the German dream of the 1940s.
Details on a planned industry day for the ArcLight project are available here in pdf for those interested. ®
Bootnote
The choice of the name "ArcLight" for this effort is a curious one. In recent military history, that term most commonly refers to the use of B-52 Stratofortresses to drop colossal loads of conventional bombs during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam ArcLight carpet strikes were often gratefully received by American troops on the ground - perhaps most famously when used against the People's Army of Vietnam forces besieging the US Marines at Khe Sanh - but were wildly indiscriminate in their effects.
The US Air Force nowadays uses the telling phrase "potential and actual enemy forces" when describing the many things that were blown up by B-52 Arc Light missions back in the 1960s and 70s. It's to be hoped that the modern DARPA ArcLight is going to be used a bit more selectively.
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Revolutionary Approach To Time Critical Long Range Strike Project (RATTLRS)
from globalsecurity.org:
Revolutionary Approach To Time Critical Long Range Strike Project (RATTLRS)
RATTLRS is a technology demo program at this point and not a weapon development program. RATTLRS is part of the National Aerospace Initiative [NAI] construct. Responses to this announcement are sought to demonstrate and increase high-speed flight capabilities and performance for expendable supersonic vehicles. RATTLRS is a joint project between the Navy, Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and potentially other government agencies. There are two aspects to this project. The first, RATTLRS Flight Demonstration Project (RATTLRS FDP) includes concept studies, design, development, fabrication and test of flight vehicles.
The goal of the RATTLRS FDP is to conduct at least three demonstration flights, with the first flight thirty-six (36) to thirty-eight (38) months after contract award, and the project completed forty-eight (48) months after award. The second aspect is the optional RATTLRS Technology Development Project (TDP), focused towards developing and maturing technologies for inclusion in potential future high-speed flight demonstrations. The potential for additional flight demonstrations depends upon risk reduction, technology development rationale and funding availability. The maximum contract value of any individual contract could be up to $175M. The cost of the demo program to be $50M. There are two propulsion contractors in the market place that have the capability and prior experience to provide engines for RATTLRS.
The flight demonstration vehicle of interest to the RATTLRS project is of a size, weight and configuration that has potential to develop into a tactical weapon system. The flight demonstrator vehicle must have the following attributes:
■ The demonstration vehicles must use a turbine engine as propulsion.
■ The demonstration vehicles must be capable of acceleration from a subsonic speed to a minimum cruise condition of Mach 3.0 (~3,000 km/hr) using only turbine power, at a minimum acceleration rate of 0.25 g through the transonic flight region (in level flight).
■ Maintain a cruise speed of Mach 3.0 or greater for a period of at least five (5) minutes [implying a range of about 250 km].
It is desirable that the flight demonstration project allow for growth opportunities (via RATTLRS TDP) for the design in areas such as:
■ Increased cruise speed (Mach > 4.0, ~4,000 km/hr)
■ Increased acceleration (> .5g)
■ Longer cruise time (> 15 minutes), implying a range up to 1,000 km.
■ Optimized vehicle configuration for payload, range, or endurance
■ Improved efficiency in multiple speed regimes.
■ Reduced cost
■ Multiple-launch platform capable
The flight demonstration vehicle shall have a size, weight and configuration that has the potential to be developed into a tactical weapon system. Examples of the potential tactical weapons include (1) an air-launched (compatible with the F/A-18 E/F, F-22, and/or Joint Strike Fighter as a launch platform) medium range weapon with a maximum vehicle weight of 1800 lbs including 500 lbs payload or (2) a ship-launched/sub-launched Vertical Launch System (VLS) compatible long range weapon with a maximum weight of 3400 lbs including 750 lbs payload (includes vehicle and any booster required for VLS launch), or one vehicle compatible with multiple launch options if trade studies indicate an advantage to such a configuration. The higher weight would include the booster required to launch the missile from a vertical tube.
On March 1, 2004 the Office of Naval Research awarded the Revolutionary Approach to Time Critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) Program to Orbital Sciences Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company and McDonnell Douglas Corporation. This is a five year (base and options) IDIQ contract with a ceiling value of $175 million.
There are two aspects to this project. The first, RATTLRS Flight Demonstration Project (RATTLRS FDP) includes concept studies, design, development, fabrication and test of flight vehicles. The goal of the RATTLRS FDP is to conduct at least three demonstration flights, with the first flight thirty-six (36) to thirty-eight (38) months after contract award, and the project completed forty-eight (48) months after award.
The second aspect is the optional RATTLRS Technology Development Project (TDP), focused toward developing and maturing technologies for inclusion in potential future high-speed flight demonstrations. The potential for additional flight demonstrations depends upon risk reduction, technology development rationale and funding availability.
On 01 February 2005 the Office of Naval Research awarded Lockheed Martin a phase two contract N00014-04-D-0068-0003 for $157,443,201 including options. RATTLRS, part of the National Aerospace Initiative, is a demonstration program to increase capabilities and performance for expendable supersonic vehicles. Lockheed Martin is teamed with Allison Advanced Development Company to develop technologies that will provide an advanced Mach 4+ integrated propulsion system in an operationally traceable airframe. The Allison YJ102R developmental engine provides more than six times the specific thrust of the engines in the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft in a simple and inexpensive design suitable for an expendable missile.
In October 2006 Lockheed Martin completed penetrator warhead sled tests to successfully conclude the high-speed payload employment testing component of its Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) effort. A simulated nose and inlet structure of an air breathing cruise missile demonstrated warhead penetration performance and survivability against hardened bunkers. During the tests, the RATTLRS airframe was accelerated to supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 2. The warhead penetrated cleanly and completely through the concrete barriers. Recovered hardware shows that the warhead remained structurally intact. This testing validates that lightweight penetrator warheads, when coupled with high-speed vehicles, provide the penetration depth of significantly heavier penetrators. With this third demonstration, the RATTLRS program has shown that integrated aero-propulsion technologies enable enhanced performance capability for a variety of missions including mobile, time sensitive targets and buried targets. The sled test program was part of the overall risk reduction effort for RATTLRS, culminating in flight demonstrations in late 2007.
As of February 2008 a flight demonstration of a Mach 3+ cruise missile vehicle was planned to include payload integration and high Mach turbine capable of transonic acceleration and 15 minute Mach 3+ cruise duration. One full scale powered flight was scheduled for February 2008.
In January 2009 Rolls-Royce announced it had successfully completed an initial test of its advanced, high-specific thrust YJ102R engine at the Indianapolis, Indiana facility. This test was the first of a series to be performed by LibertyWorks, the company's research unit, and is designed to validate critical performance criteria under its High Speed Turbine Engine Demonstration (HiSTED) contract with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). LibertyWorks, known officially as Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc., has a long history of service to the US military. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, US, LibertyWorks - previously known as Allison Advanced Development Co. (AADC) - has contributed technology to the F-35 Lightning II LiftFan and F136 engine; IHPTET (Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology) programme; and the RATTLRS supersonic missile. HiSTED is a joint DARPA/Air Force initiative to design, fabricate and ground test a high Mach expendable turbine engine. The engine is also expected to power Lockheed Martin's Revolutionary Approach to Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) vehicle. The RATTLRS program is a supersonic, science and technology missile flight demonstrator effort sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. Additional engine testing is scheduled to demonstrate its ability to achieve transonic acceleration and Mach 3+ cruise speed. The success of these tests will lead to a first flight demonstration of the RATTLRS vehicle.
The missile system, in the same class as the Russian Granit and the Indo-Russian BrahMos is expected to have the following characteristics: it will use a turbine engine, accelerate with 0.25g from subsonic speed to at least Mach 3, and cruise at Mach 3 for at least 5 minutes. Lockheed Martin's RATTLRS vehicle will be air-launched by a fighter aircraft, and will be powered by an Allison YJ102R turbojet engine. The YJ102R covers a speed range similar to that of the 1960s' J58 used in the SR-71, but is much smaller and lighter than the older engine and uses less fuel. e.g., no afterburner will be necessary to accelerate RATTLRS to Mach 3.
If RATTLRS is to be further developed into a tactical missile, performance goals include a speed of Mach 4+, 0.5g acceleration, and 15+ minutes cruise time (implying a range of 1000+ km). A typical payload for such a weapon would be a penetrating warhead which can use the missile's speed to particular advantage.
As of May 2009 plans called for completing the RATTLRS flight test program by the end of 2009. [as of early 2010 this flight seems not to have happened]
And this, from defense-update.com:
RATTLRS
Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike
Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) represents a new supersonic cruise missile concept, enabling warfighters to rapidly launch precision attacks against time-critical targets, from ranges of hundreds of kilometers. When planning RATTLERS missions, users will be able to adjust fuel consumption, speed and range to address a particular mission objective. Unlike current cruise missiles, depending on a lengthy and complex mission planning process, RATTLRS will feature much faster mission preparation, taking only few minutes. Missiles will be able to strike a target after flying a distance of hundreds of kilometers, within 30 minutes from target detection.
One of the main advantages of RATTLRS is its ability to cruise at variable speeds, including supersonic speed (Mach 3 – 4), using a high-speed turbine engine without a booster (afterburner). In supersonic mode, the turbine engine used in RATTLRS will be most efficient. This capability is translated to extended range, long mission endurance and reduced thermal signature. RATTLRS will be launched from tactical fighters and bombers. A derivative of the missile will be vertically launched from surface ships and from submerged submarines. The 2,000 lbs, 20 foot long technology demonstrator cruise missile will use the YJ102R turbine engine developed by LibertyWorks, (Rolls Royce North American Technologies).
The missile will have a range exceeding 500 miles, flying at supersonic speed, at an altitude of 70,000 feet. RATTLRS will be designed to flexibly accommodate various types of payloads, including unitary penetration warheads and submunition dispensers. The missile is designed to enable subsonic and supersonic submunition dispensing as well as direct attack with unitary warhead. Whether unitary or dispenser warheads are used, the high acceleration at supersonic speed increases the velocity of the missiles at an exponential rate, gathering maximum kinetic energy at the terminal phase.
In October 2006 the missile's development is progressing, as Lockheed Martin concludes the final series of high speed sled tests, examining different aspects of the missile's terminal flight phase. Tests included subsonic sled tests, supersonic submunition dispensing and most recently, high velocity penetration of concrete reinforced target. Flight testing of the new cruise missile TD is scheduled to start within a year.
During the recent tests, a structure simulating the nose and inlet structure of the missile was accelerated to Mach 2+ supersonic speed and demonstrated clean penetration of concrete barriers while maintaining structural integrity. The test validated that lightweight penetrator warheads, when coupled with high-speed vehicles, provide the penetration depth of significantly heavier penetrators. Previous tests verified the submunition dispensing system, designed to overcome the complex dynamic flow associated with a supersonic weapon. The system uses an ejection device that closes up the airframe cavities to eliminate disruptive air flow and provide extra support to significantly reduce pitching and allow for more rapid stabilization.
RATTLRS is a technology demonstration program supported by the US Navy (Office of Naval Research ONR), USAF, NASA and other US government agencies. The prime contractor for the demonstration phase is Lockheed Martin.
And this, from gizmag.com:
The RATTLRS Penetrator missile - Mach 3 and deadly accurate
By Mike Hanlon
22:00 September 18, 2006
It’s 20 feet long, weighs 2000 pounds, cruises at 70,000 feet and will deliver itself with pinpoint accuracy anywhere within 500 miles within a few minutes of being launched, arriving at a speed greater than Mach 3. Combatants of the United States will no doubt feel particularly uncomfortable after reading this story, because it shows the U.S. military machine is well on the way to achieving its Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) goals. With its speed, accuracy, range and responsiveness, RATTLRS will be able to address a wide variety of target types including mobile, time-critical, hard or buried targets. The tests completed this week by Lockheed Martin were penetrator warhead sled tests against hardened bunkers. During the tests, the RATTLRS airframe was accelerated to supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 2 and slammed into the bunker (pictured). The warhead penetrated cleanly and completely through the concrete barriers
The RATTLRS technology demonstration program is led by the Office of Naval Research and supported by the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and DARPA, and will create a new standard for time-critical strike weaponry. The end result will be a high-supersonic cruise missile capable of speeds greater than Mach 3 that can be launched from Navy and Air Force platforms including surface ships, submarines, and aircraft. It will be the first weapon system to be designed from the start with this breadth of distributed strike capability. RATTLRS is currently in development and demonstration with its first flight test scheduled for late 2007. Lockheed Martin is the prime weapon system integrator and Rolls Royce-Liberty Works is the engine developer.
RATTLRS, using the unique capability of turbine power systems, can be launched at subsonic speeds, without a booster, and accelerate on its own accord to cruise speeds in excess of Mach 3. RATTLRS will also combine the latest technological advances in accuracy and targeting with high performance non-afterburning turbine technology found in the YJ102R engine. This turbine offers high-supersonic speed, extended range, high fuel efficiency, and the ability to trade speed for increased range. With its speed, accuracy, range and responsiveness, RATTLRS will be able to address a wide variety of target types including mobile, time-critical, hard or buried targets.
The state of the art technologies within RATTLRS will give tomorrow’s warfighters a leap ahead in capability combined with greater flexibility, without increased logistical burden.
Lockheed Martin is teamed with Allison Advanced Development Company (AADC) in the RATTLRS project to develop technologies that will provide an advanced Mach 4+ integrated propulsion system in an operationally traceable airframe. The AADC YJ102R engine provides the supersonic cruise capability of the legendary SR-71 spy plane in a simple and inexpensive engine suitable for an expendable missile. Advances in turbine cooling technology in the 40 years since the SR-71 first flew allow the YJ102R to provide more than six times the specific thrust of the SR-71 engines, allowing the RATTLRS vehicle to cruise at similar Mach numbers without the high fuel consumption of afterburning engines.
Lockheed Martin completed penetrator warhead sled tests to successfully conclude the high-speed payload employment testing component of RATTLRS is a supersonic, science and technology missile flight demonstrator sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.
A simulated nose and inlet structure of an air breathing cruise missile demonstrated warhead penetration performance and survivability against hardened bunkers. During the tests, the RATTLRS airframe was accelerated to supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 2. The warhead penetrated cleanly and completely through the concrete barriers. Recovered hardware shows that the warhead remained structurally intact.
This testing validates that lightweight penetrator warheads, when coupled with high-speed vehicles, provide the penetration depth of significantly heavier penetrators. According to Neil Kacena, vice president, Advanced Development Programs deputy, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, “With this third demonstration, the RATTLRS program has shown that integrated aero-propulsion technologies enable enhanced performance capability for a variety of missions including mobile, time sensitive targets and buried targets.”
The sled test program is part of the overall risk reduction effort for RATTLRS, culminating in flight demonstrations in late 2007. Lockheed Martin conducted the supersonic sled test at the Holloman High Speed Sled Track in New Mexico. Previous sled tests addressed the high speed dispense of guided munitions, while this test demonstrated the performance capability of a high-speed penetrator warhead against a hardened target.
The RATTLRS program is a key component in Lockheed Martin’s goal to develop high-speed weapon systems for joint U.S. customers.
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Joint SuperSonic Cruise Missile (JSSCM)
from globalsecurity.org:
In April 2002 the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) solicited information from missile system integrators and other interested parties on technology available for a transformational approach to providing an affordable Supersonic Cruise Missile (SSCM) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The SSCM ACTD will culminate in a technology demonstration of a supersonic cruise missile system capable of functionally disabling time sensitive Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) targets, hardened and deeply buried WMD targets, or both. Time sensitive WMD targets are broadly classified as those posing imminent threat of conducting or supporting hostile attack (or re-attack) on U.S. or allied forces or civilian population centers. Government sponsorship of the SSCM ACTD includes DTRA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), with additional international participation.
The objective of the 16 April 2002 RFI was to identify technological concepts and performance potential for the SSCM ACTD, which may also be used as the basis for developing the SSCM ACTD performance specification. This specification may subsequently be provided to industry as part of the anticipated SSCM ACTD solicitation.
The SSCM ACTD will operationally demonstrate an integrated system concept - including targeting, launch control, flight vehicle, payload (warhead and fuzing), and damage assessment - using mature and evolving technologies. Technologies of particular importance for the SSCM ACTD include but are not limited to: (a) the integrated airframe and propulsion system; (b) potential payloads for time-sensitive surface targets; (c) a potential penetrator warhead; (d) low-cost smart-fuzing options; (e) autonomous guidance, navigation, and control technologies; and (f) battle damage indication / assessment to provide positive, real-time or near real time feedback using anticipated Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance resources (C4ISR).
Key performance parameters for the SSCM ACTD include but are not limited to: (a) terminal accuracy of 3 meters Circular Error Probable (CEP) or better, excluding Target Location Error (good weather, no jamming); (b) a range of at least 400 nautical miles with a goal of at least 600 nautical miles; (c) a cruising speed of at least Mach 3.5 with a goal of Mach 4.5 or better; (d) for any air-launched demonstration variant, a maximum all-up-round launch weight of less than 2000 lbs. with a goal of 1800 lbs.; (e) warhead penetration capability of at least 10 meters with a goal of 15 meters or better through 5 ksi concrete; (f) soft target kill capability and bio-defeat fill compatibility; and (g) a strike planning, preparation, and launch duration, from receipt of target coordinates for mission planning to physical weapon release/exit from the launch platform, of less than 6 minutes.
Important design considerations for the SSCM ACTD and any follow-on program include but are not limited to: (a) potential production affordability (assuming a production run of 200 missiles per year for five contiguous years, starting in FY07), yielding a weapon that is more cost effective than currently produced systems; (b) design flexibility and/or use of a common missile body with unique launch kits and/or boosters that allows for a launch capability from surface combatants (using existing MK 41 VLS), aircraft (F/A-18E/F strike aircraft ; USN P-3; and potentially USAF bomber platforms, including B-1B internal and B-52 external carriage), and potentially sub-surface combatants (VLS); (c) survivability, including GPS jamming resistance; (d) all-weather operation; (e) fire-and-forget operation; (f) Pre-Planned Product Improvement (P3I) approach for in-flight retargeting; (g) low life cycle cost and ease of maintenance; (h) concept of operations (CONOPS); (i) payload modularity - that is, missile compatibility with alternate warhead concepts; (j) manufacturability and P3I considerations for a potential System Development and Demonstration (SDD)/Production phase; (k) post-ACTD residual deployment compatibility with anticipated strike planning systems; and (l) ability to pass a shipboard Weapon System Explosive Safety Review Board (WSESRB) and aircraft safety review and to be compliant with standard range safety flight test program requirements. The SSCM ACTD system shall be SALT II, START, and Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR) compliant.
An addendum on the trade space of speed, range, weight, and payload versus cost is desired that encompasses operating characteristics beyond both lower and upper ends of desired performance. Potentially reduced performance versions of interest would be desirable to meet the following needs: (a) for surface combatants, to support enhanced Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) volumes of fire support requirements with multiple weapons/payloads in a single MK 41 VLS canister; (b) for air, to support an optimum carrier strike wing package with a missile range of at least 300 nautical miles that meets the F/A-18E/F weapons carriage requirements and permits carrier recovery of the F/A-18E/F with two weapons aboard; and (c) for sub-surface combatants, to support VLS and Torpedo Tube Launch.
The U.S. Government is seeking transformational approaches in program management and technology integration which will be required to provide an affordable solution to this composite problem. Respondents are free to address the problem of targets that may relocate after attack coordinates are derived for them but are stationary during missile terminal attack, and targets that may be moving during missile terminal attack, but these attack modes are not required of the ACTD system and may be addressed in terms of a P3I approach.
RFI respondents should provide Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimates to complete the ACTD program, based on the following assumptions: (1) ACTD go-ahead in January 2004, with demonstrations complete by the end of CY07; (2) any Contractor team would provide for: (a) ACTD systems engineering, systems integration, project management, (b) conduct of two system demonstration flights - at least one surface-launched (US Navy VLS system mock-up on land test range) and potentially one air-launched (US Navy aircraft) flight - with each demonstration including transition to cruise, terminal guidance and impact with required CEP, (c) fabrication of test missiles as well as ten residual operational assets and associated operational and support equipment (including mission planning components), (d) verification of actual test performance against objectives and validation of test goals and modeling and simulations, (e) other ancillary tests or modeling and simulation adequate to ensure the ACTD system meets performance requirements, (f) appropriate level of documentation deliverables, and (g) any other tests that the contractor recommends for a successful ACTD; and (3) target preparation and flight test range costs would be borne by the Government.
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Fasthawk Low Cost Missile System (LCMS)
from globalsecurity.org:
Advanced Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator (ARRMD)
On 25 March 1997 The Boeing Company received an $8 million contract from the US Navy for the Low Cost Missile System (LCMS) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program, called Fasthawk. The 36-month program demonstrated technologies applicable to a next-generation, ship-launched, land attack missile system. The LCMS ATD program was conducted jointly with the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, CA.
The LCMS concept comprised a fin-less, bending body airframe, fixed geometry annular inlet, and a slip-out booster/ramjet engine. It was to demonstrate through a series of ground and flight tests the technologies required to deliver a 700-pound payload to a range exceeding 700 nautical miles at a speed of Mach 4.0.
The Office of Naval Research sponsored the Hypersonics Weapons Technology (HWT) and the Low-Cost Missile (LCM) programs. The HWT Program investigated technologies necessary for effective weapon-system operation in the hypersonic realm. The LCM Program - commonly known as Fast Hawk - was to develope an entry-level capability for a Mach 4 hypersonic weapon. Both of these ONR programs fed into the Hypersonic Strike (HyStrike) Program sponsored by the chief of naval operations (N88; N87; and N86).
The Low-Cost Missile System (LCMS) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) demonstrated technology for a free-flight test of a bending annular missile body (BAMB) ramjet missile configuration with a 700-lb warhead, 700-nmi range at Mach 4.0/70,000-ft altitude using thrust vector control ahead of the ramjet engine for transition to the FASTHAWK supersonic cruise missile.
The LCMS was selected by the Navy's Science and Technology Working Group as the top-rated Navy Advanced Technology Demonstration Program for fiscal year 97. Autonetics and Missile Systems Division partnered with the Naval Air Warfare Center, Airframe, Ordnance, and Propulsion Systems Division for the program. Joint risk-reduction activities were conducted earlier this year in the areas of propulsion, thrust vector control, and guidance and control.
The Low Cost Missile System was terminated for high payoff technical alternatives, cost growth and lack of transition support. FY 1999 efforts were limited to documentation of progress to date.
In June 1998 DARPA selected Boeing to pursue development of the hypersonic [Mach 6+] Advanced Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator (ARRMD). ARRMD was intended to be a low cost hypersonic missile approach to engage time critical targets at ranges in excess of 400 nautical miles. Operational capability was projected for 2010. Boeing studied two different ARRMD designs, a wide, flat "waverider" shape and a more conventional cylindrical configuration. No flight hardware was fabricated, and the studies were completed in 2001. These two configurations later surfaced under new programs, the DARPA/ONR cylindrical HyFly - Hypersonics Flight Demo and the AFRL X-51 waverider.
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HyStrike - High Speed Strike Missile
from globalsecurity.org:
As of the year 2000 it was intended that HyStrike would begin the development of an operational hypersonic weapon that will be fielded in the 2005 to 2012 time frame. As with so many similar programs, it seems to have petered out a few years later. The surface-launched system could hit underground targets to a depth of 12 meters after flying at beyond Mach 4. The wingless missile would change direction in flight by using a bending body joint.
A unique aspect of this Navy programs was that the goal is a single hypersonic strike weapon that will be launchable from air, surface and subsurface platforms. This is a first-time collaboration between these three communities to develop a common weapon system for time-critical and deeply buried targets. It is intended to produce increased operations effectiveness as well as life-cycle cost saving.
When fielded, the hypersonic strike weapon was intended to have a major positive impact on battlespace management. The weapon's greatly decreased time to target will give the command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) components more time to search for and identify time-critical threats. Powerful kinetic penetrators will defeat the enemy's tactic of burrowing deeper or building stronger bunkers. And the ability to take out threat weapons before they are launched will increase US and allied survivability, efficiently, cost effectively - and soon.
The hypersonic weapon's immense destructive power results from kinetic energy. An object striking a target at Mach 8 will generate 64 times the force of an object of the same mass striking the target at Mach 1. This phenomenon makes hypersonic weapons well suited to attacking hardened or deeply buried targets such as command bunkers or biological-weapon storage facilities.
Aerothermic heating, caused by the friction of air passing the weapon body, is one area of intensive research. At Mach 4, as the hypersonic weapon passes through the lower atmosphere in the terminal phase of its flight, its surface reaches about 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. This level is within the tolerance range of new titanium and inconel materials. At Mach 6, however, the surface temperatures exceed 2800 F and at Mach 8 over 5600 F; skin materials, as well as internal temperature control, become a much larger issue.
The compliance of this long-range system with various bilateral arms control treaties remains an unresolved issue.
Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE)
Research on pulse detonation engines (PDEs) is still in its infancy and it could until 2010 before a sensible configuration is achieved, according to Joe Doychack, PDE development technology project manager at NASA's Glenn Research Center. Four US government agencies, industry and academia have ongoing projects, and parallel studies are underway in countries such as Canada, France, Russia, Japan and Sweden. The aim is to harness the chemical energy content of a detonated mixture of fuel and oxidiser. Various aspects have been demonstrated but a complete propulsion system has not been developed. The Glenn Research Center's project of testing a complete PDE beneath a Boeing F-15 was cancelled. The engine was a PDE made by Pratt & Whitney for the cancelled HyStrike hypersonic missile project.
Specifications
Mission
Attack, Destroy, & Hold at Risk Short Dwell and/or Time-Critical Targets at Long Standoff Ranges
Range
up to 600 nmi / over 700 nmi
Average speed
Mach 3.5 to Mach 7
2600 mph - 5200 mph
Features
■High weapon survivability
■Penetration of 18-36 feet of concrete
■Reactive SEAD
■Day, night, adverse weather operation
■Family of Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
■Neckdown to 1 type of Weapon vice 6 currently
■Minimize cost of ownership
Operational
2010 IOC
Platforms
Navy/Shipboard compatible F/A-18 E/F, JSF, F-22, F-16, F-15E, B52, B-2,B-1, MLRS, Surface ships, & submarines
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Hypersonics Flight Demonstration program (HyFly)
from globalsecurity.org:
The Hypersonics Flight Demonstration program (HyFly) National Aerospace Initiative will develop and demonstrate advanced technologies for hypersonic flight. Flight-testing will be initiated as early in the program as possible and progress from relatively simple and low-risk tests through the demonstration of an increasingly more difficult set of objectives. Technical challenges include the scramjet propulsion system, lightweight, high-temperature materials for both aerodynamic and propulsion structures, and guidance and control in the hypersonic flight regime.
The objective of the HyFly program is to mature the Dual Combustion Ramjet (DCR) hypersonic missile concept. Flight tests feature a missile configuration that is compatible with launch from surface ships and submarines as well as US Navy and US Air Force aircraft. Further development of HyFly to operational status will result in a weapon that could revolutionize our ability to rapidly respond to identified threats hundreds of miles away.
Boeing, the prime contractor for HyFly, and GenCorp Aerojet, who will manufacture the engines, are developing the hypersonic strike missile demonstrator. The HyFly program is being performed by a team consisting of The Boeing Co. of St. Louis; Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif.; The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.; and Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, Calif. The engine is a dual combustion ramjet engine developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory under ONR's Hypersonic Weapon Technology program.
The ultimate goals of the program are to demonstrate a vehicle range of 600 nautical miles with a block speed of 4,400 feet per sec, maximum sustainable cruise speed in excess of Mach 6, and the ability to deploy a simulated or surrogate submunition.
Recently demonstrated performance in ground testing of the Dual Combustion Ramjet (DCR) engine coupled with advances in high temperature, light weight aerospace materials are enabling technologies for this program. The program will pursue a dual approach. The core program will focus on development and demonstration of capabilities requisite for and operational weapon. A separate effort will be performed in parallel to demonstrate advanced propulsion technologies and develop low-cost test techniques. DARPA is negotiating with the Navy to establish a joint program to pursue areas of the hypersonics program that would be relevant to maritime applications.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) successfully conducted the first ground test of a full-scale, fully integrated hypersonic cruise missile engine using conventional liquid hydrocarbon fuel on May 30, 2002. The test, performed in a wind tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., demonstrated robust operation of the engine at simulated hypersonic cruise conditions (Mach 6.5 at 90,000 feet altitude).
Demonstration of efficient supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) performance with a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is an essential step to enabling a viable hypersonic cruise missile. The 30 May 2002 test is the first demonstration of net positive engine thrust for a fully installed, hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet missile engine.
Additional tests were conducted at the Arnold Engineering and Development Center, Arnold Air Force Base, TN, to verify operation at Mach 3.5 and 4 flight conditions, which simulate the hypersonic engine taking over following a rocket boost. In early 2003 Dual Combustion Ramjet engine testing at Arnold Engineering Development Center paved the way for Air Force and Navy officials to have a quick strike capability both services have been lacking. Putting the DCR engine through its paces, Arnold Engineering Development Center test experts marked the first time a fully integrated hypersonic cruise missile engine, using conventional liquid hydrocarbon fuel, was tested at critical flight take-over conditions. Tests were performed at AEDC’s Aerodynamic Propulsion Test Unit for GenCorp Aerojet. The DCR engine, invented by experts at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., forms the basis for the HyFly hypersonic strike missile concept being developed through a joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Office of Naval Research hypersonic flight demonstration program.
The tests provided critical data for developing the high-speed strike missile demonstrator, and APTU provided the unique capability to test the DCR at these conditions. AEDC was able to achieve a ground-test environment that matched flight-test conditions at air-breathing takeover and at Mach 4. Air-breathing takeover is the point after the rocket booster has accelerated the missile up to its maximum boost speed and the air-breathing engine powers the remainder of the missile’s flight.
A $10.4 million Military Construction upgrade enabling APTU to provide a virtual one-stop shopping for testing aerodynamic and propulsion systems from subsonic to Mach 8 was recently approved. The planned upgrade includes installing a new high-temperature and high-pressure burner that will increase test simulation capabilities with air pressures up to 2,800 pounds per square inch and temperatures up to 4,240 degrees Fahrenheit, providing the Mach 8 conditions. The modified facility will also support other types of testing besides air-breathing propulsion system tests.
As of 2002 developmental flight tests of the HyFly demonstrator vehicle were to start early in FY04 with demonstration of a surrogate submunition deployment planned for March 2004. The program planned to progress to powered flights at Mach 4 in November 2004, with Mach 6 flights starting a year later.
In the first flight test, conducted on 26 January 2005, an un-powered HyFly vehicle demonstrated safe separation from an F-15E as well as vehicle guidance and control functions.
The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA), in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), successfully demonstrated boost phase performance of a hypersonic strike demonstrator vehicle called HyFly on 26 August 2005. A Boeing F-15E launched the HyFly vehicle during the test over the US Navy's sea range at the Naval Air Weapons Center - Weapons Division at Pt. Mugu, Calif. The solid rocket booster successfully ignited and accelerated the HyFly to a speed of greater than Mach 3 - three times the speed of sound. This test was the second of five HyFly flight tests that were scheduled from 2005 to 2007.
During the next three test flights, the HyFly vehicles was powered by a booster and a dual combustion ramjet, or DCR, engine at speeds up to Mach 6 -six times the speed of sound. After two flight test failures in 2007 and 2008 due to technical difficulties, DARPA added funds for an additional flight in 2010.
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HyTech [Hypersonic Technology]
from globalsecurity.org:
The objective of the AFRL Propulsion Directorate's HyTech [Hypersonic Technology] program is to demonstrate the operability, performance, and structural durability of a liquid hydrocarbon (jet fuel) supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet). The near term application of this technology is a long range hypersonic cruise missile that is logistically supportable in a combat environment and can defeat time-sensitive targets and hard and deeply buried targets. In the far term, the scramjet technology enables a Mach 8-10 strike/reconnaissance aircraft and affordable, on-demand access to space with aircraft like operations.
The HyTech program is the latest in a long series of Air Force efforts to prove the viability and utility of the supersonic combustion ramjet engine. The program is focused to establish a scramjet technology base with near term applications to hypersonic cruise missiles. This technology base can be expanded to include reusable hypersonic vehicles such as strike/reconnaissance and affordable access to space vehicles. The US Air Force established the HyTech Program in 1995 to maintain an aggressive technology development program in hypersonics after the National Aero-Space Plane’s development was terminated. In 1996, P&W won a $48-million contract for HySET.
By maturing scramjet propulsion, researchers will provide a key component to a new breed of propulsion systems known as the combined or combination cycle engines. These combine turbine, ramjet, scramjet and/or rocket engines, using each of the different cycles to the fullest advantage of their respective efficiencies to optimize overall system performance. Such propulsion systems have the potential to enable a family of vehicles, including global range, high speed aircraft, and “spaceplane” type vehicles for on-demand access to space.
As a variation of the ramjet, scramjets allow combustion to occur in a supersonic airflow, therefore eliminating the physical flow throttling characteristic of a conventional ramjet and expanding the operating range above Mach 6. Scientists realized during early experiments that evolving the well-known ramjet to a supersonic combustion engine was a challenging and complex task. In the ensuing years, scientists conducted several programs in the US with the objective of proving the scramjet as a viable propulsion system; however, none advanced to the flight test stage.
In 2001 a team of researchers from Air Force and industry achieved a major milestone on the development path to demonstrate a hydrocarbon-fueled, supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, engine. Such propulsive power will enable weapons that will dramatically increase range and decrease the reaction time when employed against high-value targets at long standoff ranges.
The supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine, developed by Pratt & Whitney under the Propulsion Directorate's Hypersonic Technology program, known as the performance test engine (PTE), is a heat sink, hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine demonstrator. In January 2001, the PTE made history when it became the first integrated scramjet engine to successfully operate at hypersonic speeds using conventional hydrocarbon fuels without the use of energetic additives. During the history-making test program, directorate engineers verified performance and operability of the engine in the Mach 4.5 to 6.5 flight regime.
The first key technology addressed was the slim thrust-to-drag margins inherent in supersonic combustion flow paths. Traditional methods of fuel/air mixing rely on physical protrusion into the flow such as a fuel strut. Frictional drag and structural cooling requirements increase as a result. HyTech scientists successfully minimized physical intrusions into the flow path to widen the thrust-to-drag margin. The PTE recorded net positive thrust and demonstrated good fuel/air mixing.
The second groundbreaking technology was development of fuel-cooled structures using endothermic fuels. Scientists designed the HyTech engine to run on JP-7 fuel to take advantage of hydrocarbon fuel volumetric energy density and its logistics availability. In the PTE, they simulated structural heating of JP-7 in a bench fuel heat exchanger/cracker. The heat exchanger delivered heated JP-7, or its cracked endothermic products, to the engine fuel injectors. The engine operated successfully at each test Mach number with the fuel in the appropriate thermodynamic state and composition. Further, scientists developed and demonstrated large-scale, fuel-cooled panels using nickel-based alloys. They tested these panels in a scramjet combustor at UTRC and in the Air Vehicles Directorate's Radiant Heating Facility. These components exceeded engine durability requirements.
A third success factor for the HyTech demonstration was limiting the target operating range of the engine to between Mach 4 and 8, a regime well suited for hydrocarbon operation. This allows scientists to design a fixed geometry engine, simplifying the structure and operation.
Built under the AFRL’s Propulsion Directorate’s HyTech program, the Performance Test Engine, or PTE, successfully completed a series of free jet tests at Mach 4.5 and 6.5. The PTE is an integrated engine with inlet, combustor, and nozzle. Pratt & Whitney developed this heavyweight, heat sink demonstrator engine under contract to AFRL. The tests were conducted at the GASL facilities at Ronkonkoma, New York. The PTE met or exceeded performance goals. The Performance Test Engine (PTE) garnered a 2001 Aviation Week Laureate Award for the scramjet development team.
The next step and culmination of the HyTech program was the flightweight Ground Demonstration Engine. This integrated scramjet engine will be fabricated with fuel-cooled structures that will demonstrate the performance, operation, and structural durability of this flight-type test engine.
To develop the GDE design, the Hydrocarbon Scramjet Engine Technology (HySET) team used a building-block approach that began with computational fluid dynamic codes. The world-class hypersonic codes define combustion products while optimizing the fueling locations and concentrations required for top performance. Computational results are used to refine engine lines, allowing optimization of the engine design prior to test.
Testing of the Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE) under the Propulsion Directorate’s Hypersonic Technology (HyTech) Program commenced on 6 September 2002. The GDE is a flightweight hydrocarbonfueled scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine demonstrator being developed by Pratt & Whitney under sponsorship of PR’s Aerospace Propulsion Office (AFRL/PRA). GDE testing was performed at the facilities of the GASL Division of Allied Aerospace Industries, Inc in Ronkonkoma, New York.
Testing of the fuel-cooled GDE moved beyond the PTE tests by demonstrating, for the first time ever, performance and structural durability of a flightweight hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet operating from Mach 4.5 to 6.5. Although the scramjet engine under development is sized for a tactical missile, the technologies being investigated have widespread applicability to high-speed airbreathing propulsion research. The maturation of high speed airbreathing propulsion technology is a critical step in the development of combined cycle engines that will enable more cost effective, on-demand access to space for future systems.
During numerous runs at Mach 4.5 and Mach 6.5 (September 2002 through June 2003), this ground demonstrator engine, known as GDE-1, reliably produced significant net positive thrust, which is important because it demonstrated the ability to efficiently burn fuel and accelerate a vehicle at these speeds. The thermal characteristics and structural durability of the engine were validated at both speeds.
By late 2003 the Propulsion Directorate completed freejet testing of the first generation Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE-1) as part of the Aerospace Propulsion Division's Hypersonic Technology program. GDE-1 is a flight-weight, fuel-cooled, hydrocarbon supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) ground test engine designed and built by Pratt & Whitney and tested at GASL's facilities in Ronkonkoma, New York. Directorate researchers teamed with these industrial partners to successfully demonstrate the operability and durability of the GDE-1 at two representative flight Mach numbers (M = 4.5 and M = 6.5). Notably, this was the world's first fuel-cooled scramjet engine to operate on conventional jet fuel.
Having successfully completed GDE-1 testing, the next step in the development process was to design, fabricate, and test the second generation Ground Demonstration Engine known as GDE-2. By early 2005 Smiths Aerospace of Manchester, Connecticut, completed fabrication of the 2nd generation Ground Demonstration Engine, or GDE-2. This scramjet engine was assembled under the Propulsion Directorate’s Hydrocarbon Scramjet Engine Technology (HySET) program with Pratt & Whitney. Using lessons learned from GDE-1, GDE-2 was designed and fabricated to demonstrate the operability, structural durability, and engine performance of a complete hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet propulsion system to be tested at Mach 5 and Mach 7.
In July 2005 Pratt & Whitney (P&W) Space Propulsion completed fabrication of a hypersonic Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE-2), successfully completing a three-phase, nine-year, $58 million contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The engine has a single flight-like flowpath with a bolted assembly, composite leading edge, closed-loop fuel system, and moveable inlet cowl flap. The engine was integrated with the forebody, pedestal, and instrumentation. It was then shipped to NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia, to be tested in the NASA LaRC 8-foot High Temperature Tunnel in October 2005 at Mach 5 flight conditions. Major test objectives were to demonstrate the closed loop fuel system, assess inlet performance and operability, assess operational characteristics of the hot gas valves, confirm engine light sequence, and verify design tools. This was the first time a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet propulsion system, which includes a single integrated flow path, fuel control system, closed-loop thermal management system and a Full Authority Digital Engine Control, was tested at hypersonic conditions.
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from globalsecurity.org:
SHOC - Stand-Off High-Speed Option for Counterproliferation
An advanced concept technology demo called SHOC (stand-off high-speed option for counterproliferation) was expected to involve ramjet technology, but fizzled owing to a lack of Pentagon support. The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the UK Defense Ministry planmed to collaborate on a next-generation supersonic strike weapon called SHOC (stand-off high-speed option for counterproliferation). SHOC is the successor to JSSCM (joint supersonic cruise missile), an earlier ramjet-powered missile intended to address high-speed strike requirements. This was also intended as an ACTD.
The effort was set to get underway in Fiscal 2004 as a Defense Dept. ACTD (advanced concept technology demonstration) with about $150 million in funding. Britain aimed to contribute around 10% of the overall costs.
The project is intended to explore development of a Mach 3.5-4.5 missile with a 400-600-naut.-mi. range. In its air-launched configuration, SHOC will have a threshold weight of no more than 2,000 lb. Accuracy is on the order of a 3-meter circular error probable. The target set also embraced sites associated with weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery, and generic time-critical, high-value targets. A minimum penetration of 33 ft. is required through concrete, with a desired capability of 55 ft.
A minimum of two full system demonstration flights will be carried out under the three-year program; one will be air-launched, while the other will replicate a vertical launch from a submarine, although it will be carried out from land.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Orbital Sciences were likely bidders. Given the velocity, range and weight goals, ramjet propulsion would have figured in most, if not all, of the bids. European missile manufacturer MBDA was bidding a ramjet engine design to Boeing. Some of the bids may also reflect development efforts that have been carried out in the black.
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from Defense Update:
Next Generation Missiles - LRASM
Long Range Strike Missile
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth $157 million for the development of an advanced long range anti ship missile (LRASM). The new anti-ship missile and its associated systems will extend the effective attack range of Navy warships beyond current or projected enemy anti-air and anti-ship capabilities. The new missile is required to counter the perceived threat from China, equipped with land based or shipborne ballistic missiles capable of targeting U.S. Carrier groups from a distance of hundreds of kilometers away.
Unlike current anti-ship missiles LRASM be capable of conducting autonomous targeting, relying on on-board targeting systems to independently acquire the target without the presence of prior, precision intelligence, or supporting services like Global Positioning Satellite navigation and data-links. As an autonomous weapon LRASM will rely exclusively on on-board sensors and processing systems. According to DARPA, these capabilities will enable positive target identification, precision engagement of moving ships and establishing of initial target cueing in extremely hostile environment. The missile will be designed with advanced counter-countermeasures,to effectively evade hostile active defense systems.
LRASM will comply with existing weapon launchers and storage systems, fitted to match existing the VL-41 Vertical Launch System carried on board all modern U.S. Navy combat ships. There are currently 8,500 VLS tubes in the US Navy including those based on cruisers (CG-47), destroyers (DDG-51) and submarines (SSN, SSGN).
Since 2009 Lockheed Martin has completed trade studies, system performance analysis, and passed preliminary design review and operational effectiveness assessment through the first phase. Two LRASM concepts were assessed - LRASM B, a high altitude, supersonic, ramjet-powered cruise missile. This design leverages prior ramjet development activities and a suite of supporting sensors and avionics to achieve a with balanced speed and stealth for robust performance. The second LRASM design is stealthier, low-level cruise-missile designated LRASM A. This design utilizing the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) airframe, added with additional sensors and systems to achieve a stealthy and survivable subsonic cruise missile. LRASM A is considered more suitable for air launched applications.
Phase 1 ended successfully and provided sufficient confidence in the two designs to support further investment for flight testing. The current 27 month second phase will refine these concepts, culminating in flight testing and a critical design review of the chosen design. As part of this second phase, LRASM-A will execute two air-launched demonstrations leveraging its JASSM-ER heritage and demonstrating applicability to Navy and Air Force tactical aircraft employment, while LRASM-B will complete four Vertical Launch System (VLS) demonstrations proving applicability to Navy surface combatant employment. Both LRASM-A and LRASM-B designs plan to support air-launch and VLS-launch configurations.
DARPA has selected three vendors to complete the design and flight demonstration of the two LRASM variants as well as deliver common sensor technology. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Strike Weapons, based in Orlando, Fla., will demonstrate the LRASM-A prototype weapon system while Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control Tactical Missiles, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, will demonstrate the LRASM-B prototype weapon system. BAE Systems, Information and Electronic Systems Integration, based in Nashua, N.H., will design and deliver the onboard sensor systems to support both LRASM variants.
While LRASM is positioned as a direct successor for the Harpoon, the development of a more ambitious weapon known as ArcLight is also under evaluation at DARPA as a quick reaction weapon hitting time critical targets at a distance of 2,000 nautical miles within 30 minutes. ArcLight will employ a rocket booster, sustainer accelerating the weapon to hypersonic speed, from where the strike vehicle will glide at high speed, carrying a warhead weighing 100-200 pounds to strike the target with pinpoint accuracy. ArcLight, like LRASM, will also be stored in, and launched from existing Mk 41 VLS.
"ArcLight will offer a game changing warfare capability." DARPA explained, "The ability to hit targets worldwide from several ships reduces the need for having less capable strike assets forward deployed and enables tactical and political flexibility. The cost of launching a comparable strike from Continental US (CONUS) is significant, likely to limit use of such a system and provides an opportunity for adversaries to observe launches from fixed sites" the agency explained. A major challenge for ArcLight designers is the design of a wing assembly able to transform from storage, through acceleration to high speed gliding formation. According to DARPA, such wings would likely use shape changing or harden post launch formations to withstand the flight environment.
Another design known as RATTLR (seen in the image above) was also studied by the US Navy in past years but has not matured into a full scale development program.
More on the Next Generation Missiles:
•Next Generation AEGIS Missile
•Missile Defense Roadmap
•Early Intercept Calls for Kills at Extended Range
•Introducing SM-3 IIB
•LRASM - Long Range Strike Missile
•T3 - Future Air Dominance Missile
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The Boeing X-51 Waverider
From youtube:
And this, from Wikipedia:
Boeing X-51
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
X-51
Artist's concept of X-51A during flight
Role: Robotic flight demonstrator
Manufacturer: Boeing
First flight: 26 May 2010[1]
Status: Flight testing
Primary user: United States Air Force
The Boeing X-51 is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic (Mach 6, approximately 4,000 miles per hour (6,400 km/h) at altitude) flight testing. It successfully completed its first free-flight on 26 May 2010 and also achieved the longest duration flight at speeds over Mach 5.[1][2]
The X-51 Waverider program is run as a cooperative effort of the United States Air Force, DARPA, NASA, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The program is managed by the Propulsion Directorate within the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).[3] The X-51 had its first captive flight attached to a B-52 in December 2009.
Design and development
In the 1990s the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) began the HyTECH program for hypersonic propulsion. Pratt & Whitney received a contract from the AFRL to develop a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine which led to the development of the SJX61 engine. The SJX61 engine was originally meant for NASA's X-43C, which was eventually canceled. The engine was applied to the AFRL's Scramjet Engine Demonstrator program in late 2003.[4] The scramjet flight test vehicle was designated X-51 on 27 September 2005.[5]
X-51A under the wing of a B-52 at Edwards Air Force Base, July 2009
In flight demonstrations, the X-51 is carried by a B-52 to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15.2 kilometers) and then released over the Pacific Ocean.[6] The X-51 is initially propelled by an MGM-140 ATACMS solid rocket booster to approximately Mach 4.5, before it is jettisoned. Then the vehicle's Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet takes over and accelerates it to a top flight speed near Mach 6.[7][8]
Previously DARPA viewed X-51 as a stepping stone to Blackswift,[9] a planned hypersonic demonstrator which was canceled in October 2008.[10]
Testing
Ground tests of the X-51A began in late 2006. A preliminary version of the X-51, the "Ground Demonstrator Engine No. 2", completed wind tunnel tests at the NASA Langley Research Center on 27 July 2006.[11] Testing continued there until a simulated X-51 flight at Mach 5 was successfully completed on 30 April 2007.[12][13]
SJX61-2 engine successfully completes ground tests simulating Mach 5 flight conditions.
The testing is intended to observe acceleration between Mach 4 and Mach 6 and to demonstrate that hypersonic thrust "isn't just luck".[14][15] Four test flights were initially planned for 2009, but the first captive flight of the X-51A on a B-52 was not conducted until 9 December 2009,[16][17] with further captive flights in early 2010.[18][19]
The first powered flight of the X-51 was planned for 25 May 2010, but the presence of a freighter transiting a portion of the Naval Air Station Point Mugu Sea Range caused a 24 hour postponement.[20] The X-51 completed its first powered flight successfully on 26 May 2010 by flying for over 200 seconds and reaching a speed of Mach 5; it did not meet the planned 300 second flight duration, however.[1][2] The flight had the longest scramjet burn time of 140 seconds. The X-43 had the previous longest flight burn time of 12 seconds,[2][21][22] while setting a new speed record of Mach 9.8 (12,144 km/h, 7,546 mph).
Three more test flights were planned and will use the same flight trajectory.[21] Boeing proposed to the Air Force Research Laboratory that two test flights be added in order to increase the total to six, with flights taking place at four to six week intervals, assuming there are no failures.[23]
The second test flight was initially scheduled for 24 March 2011,[24] but was not conducted due to unfavorable test conditions.[25] The flight took place on 13 June 2011. However, the flight over the Pacific Ocean ended early due to an inlet unstart event after being boosted to Mach 5 speed. The flight data from the test is being investigated.[26]
Specifications
Data from Global Security[27]
Crew: Not applicable
Length: 26 ft in (7.9 m)
Empty weight: 4,000 lb (1,814 kg)
Maximum speed: Mach 7+
See also
United States Air Force portal
Waverider
Flight airspeed record
Related development NASA X-43
References
1.^ a b c Warwick, Graham. "First X-51A Hypersonic Flight Deemed Success". Aviation Week, 26 May 2010.
2.^ a b c "Boeing X-51A WaveRider Breaks Record in 1st Flight". Boeing, 26 May 2010.
3.^ "Successful Design Review and Engine Test Bring Boeing X-51A Closer to Flight". Boeing. 1 June 2007.
4.^ Warwick, Graham. "X-51A to demonstrate first practical scramjet". Flight International, 20 July 2007.
5.^ "Propulsion Directorate Monthly Accomplishment Report". US Air Force, September 2005.[dead link]
6.^ "WaveRider makes first flight". Air Force Times. 21 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
7.^ "Successful Design Review and Engine Test Bring Boeing X-51A Closer to Flight". Boeing, 1 June 2007. Retrieved: 28 July 2008.
8.^ "X-51A Waverider flight planned for May 25". US Air Force, 20 May 2010. Retrieved: 20 May 2010.
9.^ Berger, Brian."NASA Helping U.S. Air Force Gear Up for 2009 X-51 Flights". Space.com, 8 September 2008.
10.^ Trimble, Stephen. "DARPA cancels Blackswift hypersonic test bed". Flightglobal.com, 13 October 2008.
11.^ "Completes Mach 5 Testing Of Hypersonic Propulsion System". Accessed: 28 July 2008.
12.^ "Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Revolutionary Scramjet Engine Successfully Powers First X-51A Simulated Flight". Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, 30 April 2007.
13.^ "AIAA HyTASP Program Committee Inaugural Newsletter". AIAA, April 2008.
14.^ Coppinger, Rob (6 August 2009) "Hypersonic X-51A gets December launch date". Flight Global. Retrieved: 29 April 2010.
15.^ "Hypersonic Test Flight On Track". Aviation Week, 5 August 2009.
16.^ "X-51A WaveRider gets first ride aboard B-52". Edwards AFB News, 11 December 2009.
17.^ "X-51A WaveRider Gets First Ride Aboard B-52", Spacetravel.com, 18 December 2009
18.^ "X-51 getting ready for first flight". USAF Edwards AFB News, 4 March 2010.
19.^ "X-51A flight planned May 25". US Air Force, 20 May 2010.
20.^ "Shipping traffic delays X-51A launch". USAF. 26 May 2010.
21.^ a b "X-51 Waverider makes historic hypersonic flight". US Air Force, 26 May 2010.
22.^ Croft, John. "". Flight International, 27 May 2010.
23.^ Trimble, Stephen (31 March 2009). "X-51A flight may lead to B version". Flight International: 9.
24.^ Hennigan, W. J., "Retest Is Set For Hypersonic Craft", Los Angeles Times, 24 March 2011, p. B2.
25.^ Croft, John. "Air Force launches mission, opts not to drop X-51A". Flight International, 25 March 2011.
26.^ "Second X-51 hypersonic flight ends prematurely". Flight International. 15 June 2011.
27.^ X-51. globalsecurity.org
From globalsecurity.org:
ArcLight
The ArcLight program will design, build, and flight test a long range (> 2,000 nm) vehicle that carries a 100-200 lb payload(s). ArcLight is based on an SM-3 Block II booster stack, a hypersonic glider and is capable of being launched from a Mark 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) tube. The development of the ArcLight system will enable high speed, long range weapons capable of engaging time critical targets and can be launched from Naval surface and sub-surface assets, and Naval/Air Force air assets.
The primary intent of the ArcLight Program is to design, build and flight test boost/glide vehicles that have the following goals:
■ Range 2000 nautical miles
■ Flight time of up to 30 minutes
■ Carry 100 lb minimum payload
■ Compatible for launch from a standard Mk 41 VLS, when integrated with the system
■ Survivable in defended airspace.
On 07 July 2010 DARPA\TTO announced [DARPA-BAA-10-63] Phase I of the ArcLight program to significantly advance enabling technologies for high speed, long range strike weapons. ArcLight is a demonstration program to design, build and flight test a boost/glide vehicle capable of carrying a 100-200 pound payload over a 2,000 nautical miles range in approximately 30 minutes. The operational version of the boost/glide vehicle will be launched from a Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) compatible booster stack. Demonstration of this vehicle will make it possible for the US Navy capability to engage tactical, long range, time critical, threats to the US with conventional weapons and provide the Air Force with a long range, time critical strike capability.
There are currently 8,500 VLS tubes in the US Navy including those based on cruisers (CG-47), destroyers (DDG-51) and submarines (SSN, SSGN). Deploying operational systems with an ArcLight Vehicle as the payload on Navy platforms will offer a game changing warfare capability. The ability for worldwide coverage from several ships reduces the need for having less capable strike assets forward deployed and enables tactical and political flexibility. The cost of launching a comparable strike from CONUS is significant, likely to limit use of such a system and provides an opportunity for adversaries to observe launches from fixed sites. Based on compelling results from feasibility studies and a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), DARPA believes this program will be a ground breaking way for the Navy and Air Force to engage deployed, time-critical targets.
The primary intent of the ArcLight program is to design a boost/glide vehicle, the ArcLight Demonstration Vehicle (ALDV), which is to be built and integrated with an off-the-shelf surrogate booster in Phase III, and launch it as the ArcLight Demonstration System (ALDS). Multiple teams will launch an ALDS in Phase III of the program to demonstrate the capability. In parallel, the program will track an ArcLight Operation System (ALOS) with an ArcLight Operational Vehicle (ALOV) as a payload for an Mk 41 VLS compatible system to ensure the ALDV has traceability to a system to be fielded. DARPA expects that prime proposers will have in-house expertise in the area of hypersonic flight, including associated vehicle design, trajectory analysis with guidance navigation and control, high temperature materials and ability for assembly, integration and test of their ALDV.
ArcLight Phase I will first focus on the design of an ALOS with primary emphasis on the conceptual design of the ALOV. This activity should include trade studies on technologies that might increase the range of the ALOS. At the completion of the trade studies the ALOS and ALOV should undergo a Conceptual Design Review (CoDR).
Following the CoDR for the operational systems, the work should focus on the design of the ALDV, maintaining traceability to the operational system. In addition, the ArcLight program will not support the development of new technology for the booster stack, but, rather is focused upon the enabling technologies and development of the ALDV as its payload. Effort to characterize the booster stack will only be permitted to a level that is sufficient for design and definition of the ALOS and ALOV. Likewise, the only propulsion efforts that will be considered part of the program are those that apply to the ALOV or ALDV’s portion of the trajectory. ArcLight will also not fund the development of Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC), sensors\seekers, Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) or the ALOV payload, however, technologies that would offer tremendous improvement in capability, with potential for development in future programs, should be identified.
DARPA desires that performers use their ALOS conceptual designs to develop a Concept of Operations (CONOPs) and a Military Utility Analysis (MUA). DARPA expects this effort not to exceed 10% of the total effort in Phase I. The MUA should be developed to the point that the performers demonstrate the capability and survivability of their ALOV when faced with defended airspace in a relevant threat environment.
In Phase II, Technical Area One performers will concentrate on further refining their ALDV designs and performing the necessary testing in arcjet and aero thermal wind tunnels to substantiate a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) at the end of the phase. Full scale testing of the actuation systems and validation of the program performance goals is expected. Performers will also further develop the design maturity of their ALDS and work with the Government team to identify surrogate launch boosters, test ranges and other requirements for a successful test in Phase III.
In Phase III, Technical Area One performers will progressively mature ALDV design and technology to a Critical Design Level, manufacture a boost/glide vehicle, participate in integration of the boost/glide vehicle with a surrogate launch vehicle, and flight test at relevant conditions. The Program Office intends to manage procurement of the launch vehicles, launch range access and support, data collection assets, and integration of the ALDVs with the launch vehicles for the flight testing in Phase III.
And this, from Aviation Week & Science Technology:
Darpa Eyes SM-3 For Hypersonic Strike
Feb 4, 2010
By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is seeking funding in Fiscal 2011 for ArcLight, a program to flight-test a long-range, high-speed strike weapon based on the Raytheon SM-3 ballistic-missile interceptor.
ArcLight will be based on an SM-3 Block II booster stack and a hypersonic glider, and designed to carry a 100-200 pound payload more than 2,000 nautical miles. The weapon will be compatible with the Mark 41 vertical launch system and capable of launch from U.S. Navy warships and submarines as well as Air Force assets.
The program is getting under way in Fiscal 2010 with $2 million in funding to conduct feasibility testing of new materials. The $5 million sought in 2011 would cover testing of key technologies and begin concept development.
Darpa is seeking a total budget of $3.1 billion in Fiscal 2011, up from $2.99 billion in 2010. This includes $303 million for advanced aerospace systems, such as ArcLight, an increase from the $258 million provided in 2010.
Funding sought includes $67.6 million for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program, to cover wind tunnel, propulsion and seeker testing and begin building flight-test vehicles. Lockheed Martin has contracts to study two LRASM concepts: one high, fast and ramjet-powered; one low, slow and highly stealthy.
Darpa is a seeking $60 million in 2011 to flight-test a subscale demonstrator for the Vulture extreme-endurance solar-powered stratospheric unmanned surveillance aircraft, and $43.4 million to begin building a subscale demonstrator for the Isis radar-carrying unmanned stratospheric airship.
Another $35 million is sought for the Mode Transition program to fund the ground-test of a turbojet/scramjet turbine-based combined-cycle engine to power a hypersonic aircraft or air-breathing launch vehicle.
New programs planned to start in 2011 include Responsive, Reliable Access to Space, with $7 million sought to develop reusable vehicle concepts, “which may include leveraging of commercial sector investments,” Darpa says.
Another planned new program is Counter-Unmanned Air Vehicles (C-UAV), with $5.1 million sought in 2011 to assess current threats and viable approaches to detecting small, slow, low-altitude UAVs.
Darpa is seeking funding increases in Fiscal 2011 for several programs, including $12.1 million to initiate design of the roadworthy vertical-takeoff-and-landing Transformer Vehicle; $11.8 million to begin design of the Mission Adaptive Rotor demonstrator; and $1.3 million for flight-tests to investigate the drag-reduction benefits of formation flight.
Photo: DoD
And this, also from Aviation Week:
Time-Critical Strike in a Tube
Posted by Graham Warwick at 7/13/2010 2:07 PM CDT
DARPA may still be working out what went wrong with the April 22 launch of the HTV-2 hypersonic glider by a Minotaur IV booster, but it's pushing ahead with plans for its little brother, ArcLight.
ArcLight aims to demonstrate technology for a high-speed, long-range strike weapon consisting of a hypersonic boost/glide vehicle fired from the US Navy's standard Mk41 vertical launch system (VLS). The vehicle would carry a 100-200lb payload 2,000nm in 30min.
Inviting proposals for Phase 1, DARPA says deploying ArcLight in some of the 8,500 VLS tubes across the Navy's cruisers, destroyers and submarines would give it the ability to strike time-critical targets at long range, and reduce the need for forward-based strike forces.
ArcLight is focusing only on the hypersonic glider and wing materials and not looking at how such a weapon would be targeted and guided, but performers will have to develop a concept of operations for an operational vehicle, and conduct an analysis to demonstrate its capability and survivability in defended airspace.
Phase 1 will cover conceptual design of the operational vehicle and preliminary design of a demonstrator, which would be launched by a surrogate booster - DARPA's ArcLight website identifies the Standard SM-3 Block II booster stack. Arcjet and aerothermal windtunnel testing would follow in Phase 2 and flight test in Phase 3. Multiple teams will launch demonstrators, the agency says.
The requirement to fit atop a booster that is compatible with the VLS tube, and uses the existing Mk72 first stage from the Standard missile booster, puts a tight constraint of the size and shape of the AcrLight glider.
Also in Phase 1, DARPA separately plans to award contracts to develop high-temperature materials that enable a hypersonic glider with high lift/drag ratio and control authority. That implies a sharp-edged vehicle, like HTV-2. The solicitation specifies materials "that can change shape or harden post launch and withstand the flight environment".
And this, from The Register:
Pentagon looks to revive Nazi space-bomber plan
Pocket 'Antipodes raid' hyper-smartmissiles sought
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author
Posted in Physics, 22nd April 2010 15:27 GMT
Free whitepaper – Data Center Projects
The US military appears to have temporarily given up on exotic scramjet powered hyper-plane and -missile notions for the purpose of suddenly blowing things up at short notice anywhere in the world. Rather, Pentagon boffins are now re-examining a plan once considered by the Nazis for the purpose of bombing America.
Ha - Take that, Amerikaner pigdogs! What do you mean, they didn't notice?
The boffins in question are our old friends at DARPA, the US military asylum for mad scientists, who see further into the future of warfare by standing on the shoulders of giants - if necessary, immense robot colossi or genetically engineered titanoid abominations of their own manufacture. In this case, however, they seem to be following a more conventional Isaac Newton-style policy of basing their work on that of great past practitioners in their field.
Very few groups have been more illustrious in the field of mad futuristic weapons than the Nazi rocketeers of World War II, and thus it is no surprise to find DARPA making a new push to resurrect one of their notions: that of the Boost-Glide extra-atmospheric suborbital weapons platform.
German boffins of the 1940s developed detailed plans (pdf) for a so-called Silbervogel ("Silver Bird") rocket bomber which would have soared high into space and then travelled many thousands of miles by skipping like a flung stone on water around the top of the atmosphere. It was thought by its designers that the amazing machine might be able to circumnavigate the globe like this, dropping off a bomb en route as it sailed above America; or at any rate make a landing in Japanese-held territory after such a raid. These abilities led to it being dubbed the "antipodal bomber" in some circles.
The Silbervogel plan was considered as part of Nazi aspirations to mount strikes against the USA - the so called "Amerika Bomber" project - but never actually flew. However the plans caused a good deal of activity by the rival superpowers after the war: perhaps most famously the X-20 Dyna-Soar project in the US, which would have used a Silbervogel-esque flight profile for global strike or surveillance missions. The X-20 would have launched vertically atop a conventional throwaway rocket; its Nazi predecessor was to be fired into the air by a powerful rocket catapult/sled affair running on rails.
In the event the X-20 didn't get off the ground either, but a rather less well-known Boost/Glide platform eventually did, namely the unmanned Boost Glide Re-entry Vehicle test of 1968. The BGRV lifted into space from Vandenberg airforce base in California atop an Atlas F missile rocket and re-entered over the Pacific, eventually splashing down in the vicinity of Wake Island some 3,000 miles away.
Next page: Project Arc Light rides again? What, you mean the one from Vietnam?
Pentagon looks to revive Nazi space-bomber plan
Pocket 'Antipodes raid' hyper-smartmissiles sought
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author
Posted in Physics, 22nd April 2010 15:27 GMT
Free whitepaper – Ten Errors to Avoid When Commissioning a Data Center
Project Arc Light rides again? What, you mean the one from Vietnam?
In general, though, the mission of global strategic strike is already well covered by more conventional ICBMs, as global surveillance is by spy satellites. But a nuclear-armed ICBM is a rather unsubtle tool, and even one fitted with a smaller conventional warhead would tend to cause global panic as it lifted off and streaked around the world to its destination - not to mention being rather expensive for routine use against modern Wars-on-Stuff type targets such as suddenly-emerging terrorist bigwigs or similar.
But more reasonable existing kit like submarine- or warship-launched cruise missiles or jets loaded with smart bombs is no good either. These things can take hours to arrive at the spot marked X, by which time the elusive terrorist, stolen WMD or whatever may have melted away again.
What's wanted, according to DARPA, is something which would fit into a US naval Mark 41 vertical launch tube of the sort used to pop off existing slowpoke Tomahawk cruise missiles. But it would have to carry a much smaller and more surgical 100-lb warhead, which would travel enormously faster - a minimum of 9,200 miles per hour, the equivalent of Mach 12 if we were talking about travel at sea level.
Mach 12 is far, far into the regime of hypersonics, faster than even the most exotic hydrogen-fuelled scramjets have yet flown. Such a missile could never be put into a Mark 41 launcher even if it could one day be built. DARPA's previous plan for a Mach 6 aeroplane running on normal fuel was cancelled on grounds that nobody really thought it was possible, and the ongoing X-51 WaveRider scramjet test vehicles - now delayed into this year - aren't expected to go faster.
But with the newly-announced "ArcLight" programme, DARPA aren't talking about flight in the atmosphere at all. Instead, a less ambitious BGRV type of effort is requested, with a smallish naval launch tube type rocket firing the pocket, unmanned Silbervogel/X-20 into space followed by hypersonic re-entry no more than 2,000 miles away. The US Navy's 8,500 Mark 41 tubes, distributed around the world aboard its cruisers, destroyers and submarines, should thus more or less blanket the planet with ArcLight coverage able to deliver an unstoppable 100-lb hypersonic warhead in less than half an hour from go.
On the face of it the idea seems fairly likely to be possible: Mark 41 tubes are used to launch SM-3 ballistic missile interceptors, which are well-known to be capable of sending small "kill vehicles" into space at hypersonic-equivalent velocities. Presumably it would be feasible to replace the kill vehicle on an SM-3 with a BGRV style hypersonic mini-smartbomb style affair, finally - in a small way - bringing to fruition the German dream of the 1940s.
Details on a planned industry day for the ArcLight project are available here in pdf for those interested. ®
Bootnote
The choice of the name "ArcLight" for this effort is a curious one. In recent military history, that term most commonly refers to the use of B-52 Stratofortresses to drop colossal loads of conventional bombs during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam ArcLight carpet strikes were often gratefully received by American troops on the ground - perhaps most famously when used against the People's Army of Vietnam forces besieging the US Marines at Khe Sanh - but were wildly indiscriminate in their effects.
The US Air Force nowadays uses the telling phrase "potential and actual enemy forces" when describing the many things that were blown up by B-52 Arc Light missions back in the 1960s and 70s. It's to be hoped that the modern DARPA ArcLight is going to be used a bit more selectively.
*****************************************************************
Revolutionary Approach To Time Critical Long Range Strike Project (RATTLRS)
from globalsecurity.org:
Revolutionary Approach To Time Critical Long Range Strike Project (RATTLRS)
RATTLRS is a technology demo program at this point and not a weapon development program. RATTLRS is part of the National Aerospace Initiative [NAI] construct. Responses to this announcement are sought to demonstrate and increase high-speed flight capabilities and performance for expendable supersonic vehicles. RATTLRS is a joint project between the Navy, Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and potentially other government agencies. There are two aspects to this project. The first, RATTLRS Flight Demonstration Project (RATTLRS FDP) includes concept studies, design, development, fabrication and test of flight vehicles.
The goal of the RATTLRS FDP is to conduct at least three demonstration flights, with the first flight thirty-six (36) to thirty-eight (38) months after contract award, and the project completed forty-eight (48) months after award. The second aspect is the optional RATTLRS Technology Development Project (TDP), focused towards developing and maturing technologies for inclusion in potential future high-speed flight demonstrations. The potential for additional flight demonstrations depends upon risk reduction, technology development rationale and funding availability. The maximum contract value of any individual contract could be up to $175M. The cost of the demo program to be $50M. There are two propulsion contractors in the market place that have the capability and prior experience to provide engines for RATTLRS.
The flight demonstration vehicle of interest to the RATTLRS project is of a size, weight and configuration that has potential to develop into a tactical weapon system. The flight demonstrator vehicle must have the following attributes:
■ The demonstration vehicles must use a turbine engine as propulsion.
■ The demonstration vehicles must be capable of acceleration from a subsonic speed to a minimum cruise condition of Mach 3.0 (~3,000 km/hr) using only turbine power, at a minimum acceleration rate of 0.25 g through the transonic flight region (in level flight).
■ Maintain a cruise speed of Mach 3.0 or greater for a period of at least five (5) minutes [implying a range of about 250 km].
It is desirable that the flight demonstration project allow for growth opportunities (via RATTLRS TDP) for the design in areas such as:
■ Increased cruise speed (Mach > 4.0, ~4,000 km/hr)
■ Increased acceleration (> .5g)
■ Longer cruise time (> 15 minutes), implying a range up to 1,000 km.
■ Optimized vehicle configuration for payload, range, or endurance
■ Improved efficiency in multiple speed regimes.
■ Reduced cost
■ Multiple-launch platform capable
The flight demonstration vehicle shall have a size, weight and configuration that has the potential to be developed into a tactical weapon system. Examples of the potential tactical weapons include (1) an air-launched (compatible with the F/A-18 E/F, F-22, and/or Joint Strike Fighter as a launch platform) medium range weapon with a maximum vehicle weight of 1800 lbs including 500 lbs payload or (2) a ship-launched/sub-launched Vertical Launch System (VLS) compatible long range weapon with a maximum weight of 3400 lbs including 750 lbs payload (includes vehicle and any booster required for VLS launch), or one vehicle compatible with multiple launch options if trade studies indicate an advantage to such a configuration. The higher weight would include the booster required to launch the missile from a vertical tube.
On March 1, 2004 the Office of Naval Research awarded the Revolutionary Approach to Time Critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) Program to Orbital Sciences Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company and McDonnell Douglas Corporation. This is a five year (base and options) IDIQ contract with a ceiling value of $175 million.
There are two aspects to this project. The first, RATTLRS Flight Demonstration Project (RATTLRS FDP) includes concept studies, design, development, fabrication and test of flight vehicles. The goal of the RATTLRS FDP is to conduct at least three demonstration flights, with the first flight thirty-six (36) to thirty-eight (38) months after contract award, and the project completed forty-eight (48) months after award.
The second aspect is the optional RATTLRS Technology Development Project (TDP), focused toward developing and maturing technologies for inclusion in potential future high-speed flight demonstrations. The potential for additional flight demonstrations depends upon risk reduction, technology development rationale and funding availability.
On 01 February 2005 the Office of Naval Research awarded Lockheed Martin a phase two contract N00014-04-D-0068-0003 for $157,443,201 including options. RATTLRS, part of the National Aerospace Initiative, is a demonstration program to increase capabilities and performance for expendable supersonic vehicles. Lockheed Martin is teamed with Allison Advanced Development Company to develop technologies that will provide an advanced Mach 4+ integrated propulsion system in an operationally traceable airframe. The Allison YJ102R developmental engine provides more than six times the specific thrust of the engines in the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft in a simple and inexpensive design suitable for an expendable missile.
In October 2006 Lockheed Martin completed penetrator warhead sled tests to successfully conclude the high-speed payload employment testing component of its Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) effort. A simulated nose and inlet structure of an air breathing cruise missile demonstrated warhead penetration performance and survivability against hardened bunkers. During the tests, the RATTLRS airframe was accelerated to supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 2. The warhead penetrated cleanly and completely through the concrete barriers. Recovered hardware shows that the warhead remained structurally intact. This testing validates that lightweight penetrator warheads, when coupled with high-speed vehicles, provide the penetration depth of significantly heavier penetrators. With this third demonstration, the RATTLRS program has shown that integrated aero-propulsion technologies enable enhanced performance capability for a variety of missions including mobile, time sensitive targets and buried targets. The sled test program was part of the overall risk reduction effort for RATTLRS, culminating in flight demonstrations in late 2007.
As of February 2008 a flight demonstration of a Mach 3+ cruise missile vehicle was planned to include payload integration and high Mach turbine capable of transonic acceleration and 15 minute Mach 3+ cruise duration. One full scale powered flight was scheduled for February 2008.
In January 2009 Rolls-Royce announced it had successfully completed an initial test of its advanced, high-specific thrust YJ102R engine at the Indianapolis, Indiana facility. This test was the first of a series to be performed by LibertyWorks, the company's research unit, and is designed to validate critical performance criteria under its High Speed Turbine Engine Demonstration (HiSTED) contract with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). LibertyWorks, known officially as Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc., has a long history of service to the US military. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, US, LibertyWorks - previously known as Allison Advanced Development Co. (AADC) - has contributed technology to the F-35 Lightning II LiftFan and F136 engine; IHPTET (Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology) programme; and the RATTLRS supersonic missile. HiSTED is a joint DARPA/Air Force initiative to design, fabricate and ground test a high Mach expendable turbine engine. The engine is also expected to power Lockheed Martin's Revolutionary Approach to Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) vehicle. The RATTLRS program is a supersonic, science and technology missile flight demonstrator effort sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. Additional engine testing is scheduled to demonstrate its ability to achieve transonic acceleration and Mach 3+ cruise speed. The success of these tests will lead to a first flight demonstration of the RATTLRS vehicle.
The missile system, in the same class as the Russian Granit and the Indo-Russian BrahMos is expected to have the following characteristics: it will use a turbine engine, accelerate with 0.25g from subsonic speed to at least Mach 3, and cruise at Mach 3 for at least 5 minutes. Lockheed Martin's RATTLRS vehicle will be air-launched by a fighter aircraft, and will be powered by an Allison YJ102R turbojet engine. The YJ102R covers a speed range similar to that of the 1960s' J58 used in the SR-71, but is much smaller and lighter than the older engine and uses less fuel. e.g., no afterburner will be necessary to accelerate RATTLRS to Mach 3.
If RATTLRS is to be further developed into a tactical missile, performance goals include a speed of Mach 4+, 0.5g acceleration, and 15+ minutes cruise time (implying a range of 1000+ km). A typical payload for such a weapon would be a penetrating warhead which can use the missile's speed to particular advantage.
As of May 2009 plans called for completing the RATTLRS flight test program by the end of 2009. [as of early 2010 this flight seems not to have happened]
And this, from defense-update.com:
RATTLRS
Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike
Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) represents a new supersonic cruise missile concept, enabling warfighters to rapidly launch precision attacks against time-critical targets, from ranges of hundreds of kilometers. When planning RATTLERS missions, users will be able to adjust fuel consumption, speed and range to address a particular mission objective. Unlike current cruise missiles, depending on a lengthy and complex mission planning process, RATTLRS will feature much faster mission preparation, taking only few minutes. Missiles will be able to strike a target after flying a distance of hundreds of kilometers, within 30 minutes from target detection.
One of the main advantages of RATTLRS is its ability to cruise at variable speeds, including supersonic speed (Mach 3 – 4), using a high-speed turbine engine without a booster (afterburner). In supersonic mode, the turbine engine used in RATTLRS will be most efficient. This capability is translated to extended range, long mission endurance and reduced thermal signature. RATTLRS will be launched from tactical fighters and bombers. A derivative of the missile will be vertically launched from surface ships and from submerged submarines. The 2,000 lbs, 20 foot long technology demonstrator cruise missile will use the YJ102R turbine engine developed by LibertyWorks, (Rolls Royce North American Technologies). The missile will have a range exceeding 500 miles, flying at supersonic speed, at an altitude of 70,000 feet. RATTLRS will be designed to flexibly accommodate various types of payloads, including unitary penetration warheads and submunition dispensers. The missile is designed to enable subsonic and supersonic submunition dispensing as well as direct attack with unitary warhead. Whether unitary or dispenser warheads are used, the high acceleration at supersonic speed increases the velocity of the missiles at an exponential rate, gathering maximum kinetic energy at the terminal phase.
In October 2006 the missile's development is progressing, as Lockheed Martin concludes the final series of high speed sled tests, examining different aspects of the missile's terminal flight phase. Tests included subsonic sled tests, supersonic submunition dispensing and most recently, high velocity penetration of concrete reinforced target. Flight testing of the new cruise missile TD is scheduled to start within a year.
During the recent tests, a structure simulating the nose and inlet structure of the missile was accelerated to Mach 2+ supersonic speed and demonstrated clean penetration of concrete barriers while maintaining structural integrity. The test validated that lightweight penetrator warheads, when coupled with high-speed vehicles, provide the penetration depth of significantly heavier penetrators. Previous tests verified the submunition dispensing system, designed to overcome the complex dynamic flow associated with a supersonic weapon. The system uses an ejection device that closes up the airframe cavities to eliminate disruptive air flow and provide extra support to significantly reduce pitching and allow for more rapid stabilization.
RATTLRS is a technology demonstration program supported by the US Navy (Office of Naval Research ONR), USAF, NASA and other US government agencies. The prime contractor for the demonstration phase is Lockheed Martin.
And this, from gizmag.com:
The RATTLRS Penetrator missile - Mach 3 and deadly accurate
By Mike Hanlon
22:00 September 18, 2006
It’s 20 feet long, weighs 2000 pounds, cruises at 70,000 feet and will deliver itself with pinpoint accuracy anywhere within 500 miles within a few minutes of being launched, arriving at a speed greater than Mach 3. Combatants of the United States will no doubt feel particularly uncomfortable after reading this story, because it shows the U.S. military machine is well on the way to achieving its Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) goals. With its speed, accuracy, range and responsiveness, RATTLRS will be able to address a wide variety of target types including mobile, time-critical, hard or buried targets. The tests completed this week by Lockheed Martin were penetrator warhead sled tests against hardened bunkers. During the tests, the RATTLRS airframe was accelerated to supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 2 and slammed into the bunker (pictured). The warhead penetrated cleanly and completely through the concrete barriers
The RATTLRS technology demonstration program is led by the Office of Naval Research and supported by the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and DARPA, and will create a new standard for time-critical strike weaponry. The end result will be a high-supersonic cruise missile capable of speeds greater than Mach 3 that can be launched from Navy and Air Force platforms including surface ships, submarines, and aircraft. It will be the first weapon system to be designed from the start with this breadth of distributed strike capability. RATTLRS is currently in development and demonstration with its first flight test scheduled for late 2007. Lockheed Martin is the prime weapon system integrator and Rolls Royce-Liberty Works is the engine developer.
RATTLRS, using the unique capability of turbine power systems, can be launched at subsonic speeds, without a booster, and accelerate on its own accord to cruise speeds in excess of Mach 3. RATTLRS will also combine the latest technological advances in accuracy and targeting with high performance non-afterburning turbine technology found in the YJ102R engine. This turbine offers high-supersonic speed, extended range, high fuel efficiency, and the ability to trade speed for increased range. With its speed, accuracy, range and responsiveness, RATTLRS will be able to address a wide variety of target types including mobile, time-critical, hard or buried targets.
The state of the art technologies within RATTLRS will give tomorrow’s warfighters a leap ahead in capability combined with greater flexibility, without increased logistical burden.
Lockheed Martin is teamed with Allison Advanced Development Company (AADC) in the RATTLRS project to develop technologies that will provide an advanced Mach 4+ integrated propulsion system in an operationally traceable airframe. The AADC YJ102R engine provides the supersonic cruise capability of the legendary SR-71 spy plane in a simple and inexpensive engine suitable for an expendable missile. Advances in turbine cooling technology in the 40 years since the SR-71 first flew allow the YJ102R to provide more than six times the specific thrust of the SR-71 engines, allowing the RATTLRS vehicle to cruise at similar Mach numbers without the high fuel consumption of afterburning engines.
Lockheed Martin completed penetrator warhead sled tests to successfully conclude the high-speed payload employment testing component of RATTLRS is a supersonic, science and technology missile flight demonstrator sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.
A simulated nose and inlet structure of an air breathing cruise missile demonstrated warhead penetration performance and survivability against hardened bunkers. During the tests, the RATTLRS airframe was accelerated to supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 2. The warhead penetrated cleanly and completely through the concrete barriers. Recovered hardware shows that the warhead remained structurally intact.
This testing validates that lightweight penetrator warheads, when coupled with high-speed vehicles, provide the penetration depth of significantly heavier penetrators. According to Neil Kacena, vice president, Advanced Development Programs deputy, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, “With this third demonstration, the RATTLRS program has shown that integrated aero-propulsion technologies enable enhanced performance capability for a variety of missions including mobile, time sensitive targets and buried targets.”
The sled test program is part of the overall risk reduction effort for RATTLRS, culminating in flight demonstrations in late 2007. Lockheed Martin conducted the supersonic sled test at the Holloman High Speed Sled Track in New Mexico. Previous sled tests addressed the high speed dispense of guided munitions, while this test demonstrated the performance capability of a high-speed penetrator warhead against a hardened target.
The RATTLRS program is a key component in Lockheed Martin’s goal to develop high-speed weapon systems for joint U.S. customers.
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Joint SuperSonic Cruise Missile (JSSCM)
from globalsecurity.org:
In April 2002 the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) solicited information from missile system integrators and other interested parties on technology available for a transformational approach to providing an affordable Supersonic Cruise Missile (SSCM) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The SSCM ACTD will culminate in a technology demonstration of a supersonic cruise missile system capable of functionally disabling time sensitive Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) targets, hardened and deeply buried WMD targets, or both. Time sensitive WMD targets are broadly classified as those posing imminent threat of conducting or supporting hostile attack (or re-attack) on U.S. or allied forces or civilian population centers. Government sponsorship of the SSCM ACTD includes DTRA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), with additional international participation.
The objective of the 16 April 2002 RFI was to identify technological concepts and performance potential for the SSCM ACTD, which may also be used as the basis for developing the SSCM ACTD performance specification. This specification may subsequently be provided to industry as part of the anticipated SSCM ACTD solicitation.
The SSCM ACTD will operationally demonstrate an integrated system concept - including targeting, launch control, flight vehicle, payload (warhead and fuzing), and damage assessment - using mature and evolving technologies. Technologies of particular importance for the SSCM ACTD include but are not limited to: (a) the integrated airframe and propulsion system; (b) potential payloads for time-sensitive surface targets; (c) a potential penetrator warhead; (d) low-cost smart-fuzing options; (e) autonomous guidance, navigation, and control technologies; and (f) battle damage indication / assessment to provide positive, real-time or near real time feedback using anticipated Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance resources (C4ISR).
Key performance parameters for the SSCM ACTD include but are not limited to: (a) terminal accuracy of 3 meters Circular Error Probable (CEP) or better, excluding Target Location Error (good weather, no jamming); (b) a range of at least 400 nautical miles with a goal of at least 600 nautical miles; (c) a cruising speed of at least Mach 3.5 with a goal of Mach 4.5 or better; (d) for any air-launched demonstration variant, a maximum all-up-round launch weight of less than 2000 lbs. with a goal of 1800 lbs.; (e) warhead penetration capability of at least 10 meters with a goal of 15 meters or better through 5 ksi concrete; (f) soft target kill capability and bio-defeat fill compatibility; and (g) a strike planning, preparation, and launch duration, from receipt of target coordinates for mission planning to physical weapon release/exit from the launch platform, of less than 6 minutes.
Important design considerations for the SSCM ACTD and any follow-on program include but are not limited to: (a) potential production affordability (assuming a production run of 200 missiles per year for five contiguous years, starting in FY07), yielding a weapon that is more cost effective than currently produced systems; (b) design flexibility and/or use of a common missile body with unique launch kits and/or boosters that allows for a launch capability from surface combatants (using existing MK 41 VLS), aircraft (F/A-18E/F strike aircraft ; USN P-3; and potentially USAF bomber platforms, including B-1B internal and B-52 external carriage), and potentially sub-surface combatants (VLS); (c) survivability, including GPS jamming resistance; (d) all-weather operation; (e) fire-and-forget operation; (f) Pre-Planned Product Improvement (P3I) approach for in-flight retargeting; (g) low life cycle cost and ease of maintenance; (h) concept of operations (CONOPS); (i) payload modularity - that is, missile compatibility with alternate warhead concepts; (j) manufacturability and P3I considerations for a potential System Development and Demonstration (SDD)/Production phase; (k) post-ACTD residual deployment compatibility with anticipated strike planning systems; and (l) ability to pass a shipboard Weapon System Explosive Safety Review Board (WSESRB) and aircraft safety review and to be compliant with standard range safety flight test program requirements. The SSCM ACTD system shall be SALT II, START, and Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR) compliant.
An addendum on the trade space of speed, range, weight, and payload versus cost is desired that encompasses operating characteristics beyond both lower and upper ends of desired performance. Potentially reduced performance versions of interest would be desirable to meet the following needs: (a) for surface combatants, to support enhanced Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) volumes of fire support requirements with multiple weapons/payloads in a single MK 41 VLS canister; (b) for air, to support an optimum carrier strike wing package with a missile range of at least 300 nautical miles that meets the F/A-18E/F weapons carriage requirements and permits carrier recovery of the F/A-18E/F with two weapons aboard; and (c) for sub-surface combatants, to support VLS and Torpedo Tube Launch.
The U.S. Government is seeking transformational approaches in program management and technology integration which will be required to provide an affordable solution to this composite problem. Respondents are free to address the problem of targets that may relocate after attack coordinates are derived for them but are stationary during missile terminal attack, and targets that may be moving during missile terminal attack, but these attack modes are not required of the ACTD system and may be addressed in terms of a P3I approach.
RFI respondents should provide Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimates to complete the ACTD program, based on the following assumptions: (1) ACTD go-ahead in January 2004, with demonstrations complete by the end of CY07; (2) any Contractor team would provide for: (a) ACTD systems engineering, systems integration, project management, (b) conduct of two system demonstration flights - at least one surface-launched (US Navy VLS system mock-up on land test range) and potentially one air-launched (US Navy aircraft) flight - with each demonstration including transition to cruise, terminal guidance and impact with required CEP, (c) fabrication of test missiles as well as ten residual operational assets and associated operational and support equipment (including mission planning components), (d) verification of actual test performance against objectives and validation of test goals and modeling and simulations, (e) other ancillary tests or modeling and simulation adequate to ensure the ACTD system meets performance requirements, (f) appropriate level of documentation deliverables, and (g) any other tests that the contractor recommends for a successful ACTD; and (3) target preparation and flight test range costs would be borne by the Government.
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Fasthawk Low Cost Missile System (LCMS)
from globalsecurity.org:
Advanced Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator (ARRMD)
On 25 March 1997 The Boeing Company received an $8 million contract from the US Navy for the Low Cost Missile System (LCMS) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program, called Fasthawk. The 36-month program demonstrated technologies applicable to a next-generation, ship-launched, land attack missile system. The LCMS ATD program was conducted jointly with the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, CA.
The LCMS concept comprised a fin-less, bending body airframe, fixed geometry annular inlet, and a slip-out booster/ramjet engine. It was to demonstrate through a series of ground and flight tests the technologies required to deliver a 700-pound payload to a range exceeding 700 nautical miles at a speed of Mach 4.0.
The Office of Naval Research sponsored the Hypersonics Weapons Technology (HWT) and the Low-Cost Missile (LCM) programs. The HWT Program investigated technologies necessary for effective weapon-system operation in the hypersonic realm. The LCM Program - commonly known as Fast Hawk - was to develope an entry-level capability for a Mach 4 hypersonic weapon. Both of these ONR programs fed into the Hypersonic Strike (HyStrike) Program sponsored by the chief of naval operations (N88; N87; and N86).
The Low-Cost Missile System (LCMS) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) demonstrated technology for a free-flight test of a bending annular missile body (BAMB) ramjet missile configuration with a 700-lb warhead, 700-nmi range at Mach 4.0/70,000-ft altitude using thrust vector control ahead of the ramjet engine for transition to the FASTHAWK supersonic cruise missile.
The LCMS was selected by the Navy's Science and Technology Working Group as the top-rated Navy Advanced Technology Demonstration Program for fiscal year 97. Autonetics and Missile Systems Division partnered with the Naval Air Warfare Center, Airframe, Ordnance, and Propulsion Systems Division for the program. Joint risk-reduction activities were conducted earlier this year in the areas of propulsion, thrust vector control, and guidance and control.
The Low Cost Missile System was terminated for high payoff technical alternatives, cost growth and lack of transition support. FY 1999 efforts were limited to documentation of progress to date.
In June 1998 DARPA selected Boeing to pursue development of the hypersonic [Mach 6+] Advanced Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator (ARRMD). ARRMD was intended to be a low cost hypersonic missile approach to engage time critical targets at ranges in excess of 400 nautical miles. Operational capability was projected for 2010. Boeing studied two different ARRMD designs, a wide, flat "waverider" shape and a more conventional cylindrical configuration. No flight hardware was fabricated, and the studies were completed in 2001. These two configurations later surfaced under new programs, the DARPA/ONR cylindrical HyFly - Hypersonics Flight Demo and the AFRL X-51 waverider.
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HyStrike - High Speed Strike Missile
from globalsecurity.org:
As of the year 2000 it was intended that HyStrike would begin the development of an operational hypersonic weapon that will be fielded in the 2005 to 2012 time frame. As with so many similar programs, it seems to have petered out a few years later. The surface-launched system could hit underground targets to a depth of 12 meters after flying at beyond Mach 4. The wingless missile would change direction in flight by using a bending body joint.
A unique aspect of this Navy programs was that the goal is a single hypersonic strike weapon that will be launchable from air, surface and subsurface platforms. This is a first-time collaboration between these three communities to develop a common weapon system for time-critical and deeply buried targets. It is intended to produce increased operations effectiveness as well as life-cycle cost saving.
When fielded, the hypersonic strike weapon was intended to have a major positive impact on battlespace management. The weapon's greatly decreased time to target will give the command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) components more time to search for and identify time-critical threats. Powerful kinetic penetrators will defeat the enemy's tactic of burrowing deeper or building stronger bunkers. And the ability to take out threat weapons before they are launched will increase US and allied survivability, efficiently, cost effectively - and soon.
The hypersonic weapon's immense destructive power results from kinetic energy. An object striking a target at Mach 8 will generate 64 times the force of an object of the same mass striking the target at Mach 1. This phenomenon makes hypersonic weapons well suited to attacking hardened or deeply buried targets such as command bunkers or biological-weapon storage facilities.
Aerothermic heating, caused by the friction of air passing the weapon body, is one area of intensive research. At Mach 4, as the hypersonic weapon passes through the lower atmosphere in the terminal phase of its flight, its surface reaches about 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. This level is within the tolerance range of new titanium and inconel materials. At Mach 6, however, the surface temperatures exceed 2800 F and at Mach 8 over 5600 F; skin materials, as well as internal temperature control, become a much larger issue.
The compliance of this long-range system with various bilateral arms control treaties remains an unresolved issue.
Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE)
Research on pulse detonation engines (PDEs) is still in its infancy and it could until 2010 before a sensible configuration is achieved, according to Joe Doychack, PDE development technology project manager at NASA's Glenn Research Center. Four US government agencies, industry and academia have ongoing projects, and parallel studies are underway in countries such as Canada, France, Russia, Japan and Sweden. The aim is to harness the chemical energy content of a detonated mixture of fuel and oxidiser. Various aspects have been demonstrated but a complete propulsion system has not been developed. The Glenn Research Center's project of testing a complete PDE beneath a Boeing F-15 was cancelled. The engine was a PDE made by Pratt & Whitney for the cancelled HyStrike hypersonic missile project.
Specifications
Mission
Attack, Destroy, & Hold at Risk Short Dwell and/or Time-Critical Targets at Long Standoff Ranges
Range
up to 600 nmi / over 700 nmi
Average speed
Mach 3.5 to Mach 7
2600 mph - 5200 mph
Features
■High weapon survivability
■Penetration of 18-36 feet of concrete
■Reactive SEAD
■Day, night, adverse weather operation
■Family of Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
■Neckdown to 1 type of Weapon vice 6 currently
■Minimize cost of ownership
Operational
2010 IOC
Platforms
Navy/Shipboard compatible F/A-18 E/F, JSF, F-22, F-16, F-15E, B52, B-2,B-1, MLRS, Surface ships, & submarines
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Hypersonics Flight Demonstration program (HyFly)
from globalsecurity.org:
The Hypersonics Flight Demonstration program (HyFly) National Aerospace Initiative will develop and demonstrate advanced technologies for hypersonic flight. Flight-testing will be initiated as early in the program as possible and progress from relatively simple and low-risk tests through the demonstration of an increasingly more difficult set of objectives. Technical challenges include the scramjet propulsion system, lightweight, high-temperature materials for both aerodynamic and propulsion structures, and guidance and control in the hypersonic flight regime.
The objective of the HyFly program is to mature the Dual Combustion Ramjet (DCR) hypersonic missile concept. Flight tests feature a missile configuration that is compatible with launch from surface ships and submarines as well as US Navy and US Air Force aircraft. Further development of HyFly to operational status will result in a weapon that could revolutionize our ability to rapidly respond to identified threats hundreds of miles away.
Boeing, the prime contractor for HyFly, and GenCorp Aerojet, who will manufacture the engines, are developing the hypersonic strike missile demonstrator. The HyFly program is being performed by a team consisting of The Boeing Co. of St. Louis; Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif.; The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.; and Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, Calif. The engine is a dual combustion ramjet engine developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory under ONR's Hypersonic Weapon Technology program.
The ultimate goals of the program are to demonstrate a vehicle range of 600 nautical miles with a block speed of 4,400 feet per sec, maximum sustainable cruise speed in excess of Mach 6, and the ability to deploy a simulated or surrogate submunition.
Recently demonstrated performance in ground testing of the Dual Combustion Ramjet (DCR) engine coupled with advances in high temperature, light weight aerospace materials are enabling technologies for this program. The program will pursue a dual approach. The core program will focus on development and demonstration of capabilities requisite for and operational weapon. A separate effort will be performed in parallel to demonstrate advanced propulsion technologies and develop low-cost test techniques. DARPA is negotiating with the Navy to establish a joint program to pursue areas of the hypersonics program that would be relevant to maritime applications.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) successfully conducted the first ground test of a full-scale, fully integrated hypersonic cruise missile engine using conventional liquid hydrocarbon fuel on May 30, 2002. The test, performed in a wind tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., demonstrated robust operation of the engine at simulated hypersonic cruise conditions (Mach 6.5 at 90,000 feet altitude).
Demonstration of efficient supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) performance with a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is an essential step to enabling a viable hypersonic cruise missile. The 30 May 2002 test is the first demonstration of net positive engine thrust for a fully installed, hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet missile engine.
Additional tests were conducted at the Arnold Engineering and Development Center, Arnold Air Force Base, TN, to verify operation at Mach 3.5 and 4 flight conditions, which simulate the hypersonic engine taking over following a rocket boost. In early 2003 Dual Combustion Ramjet engine testing at Arnold Engineering Development Center paved the way for Air Force and Navy officials to have a quick strike capability both services have been lacking. Putting the DCR engine through its paces, Arnold Engineering Development Center test experts marked the first time a fully integrated hypersonic cruise missile engine, using conventional liquid hydrocarbon fuel, was tested at critical flight take-over conditions. Tests were performed at AEDC’s Aerodynamic Propulsion Test Unit for GenCorp Aerojet. The DCR engine, invented by experts at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., forms the basis for the HyFly hypersonic strike missile concept being developed through a joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Office of Naval Research hypersonic flight demonstration program.
The tests provided critical data for developing the high-speed strike missile demonstrator, and APTU provided the unique capability to test the DCR at these conditions. AEDC was able to achieve a ground-test environment that matched flight-test conditions at air-breathing takeover and at Mach 4. Air-breathing takeover is the point after the rocket booster has accelerated the missile up to its maximum boost speed and the air-breathing engine powers the remainder of the missile’s flight.
A $10.4 million Military Construction upgrade enabling APTU to provide a virtual one-stop shopping for testing aerodynamic and propulsion systems from subsonic to Mach 8 was recently approved. The planned upgrade includes installing a new high-temperature and high-pressure burner that will increase test simulation capabilities with air pressures up to 2,800 pounds per square inch and temperatures up to 4,240 degrees Fahrenheit, providing the Mach 8 conditions. The modified facility will also support other types of testing besides air-breathing propulsion system tests.
As of 2002 developmental flight tests of the HyFly demonstrator vehicle were to start early in FY04 with demonstration of a surrogate submunition deployment planned for March 2004. The program planned to progress to powered flights at Mach 4 in November 2004, with Mach 6 flights starting a year later.
In the first flight test, conducted on 26 January 2005, an un-powered HyFly vehicle demonstrated safe separation from an F-15E as well as vehicle guidance and control functions.
The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA), in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), successfully demonstrated boost phase performance of a hypersonic strike demonstrator vehicle called HyFly on 26 August 2005. A Boeing F-15E launched the HyFly vehicle during the test over the US Navy's sea range at the Naval Air Weapons Center - Weapons Division at Pt. Mugu, Calif. The solid rocket booster successfully ignited and accelerated the HyFly to a speed of greater than Mach 3 - three times the speed of sound. This test was the second of five HyFly flight tests that were scheduled from 2005 to 2007.
During the next three test flights, the HyFly vehicles was powered by a booster and a dual combustion ramjet, or DCR, engine at speeds up to Mach 6 -six times the speed of sound. After two flight test failures in 2007 and 2008 due to technical difficulties, DARPA added funds for an additional flight in 2010.
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HyTech [Hypersonic Technology]
from globalsecurity.org:
The objective of the AFRL Propulsion Directorate's HyTech [Hypersonic Technology] program is to demonstrate the operability, performance, and structural durability of a liquid hydrocarbon (jet fuel) supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet). The near term application of this technology is a long range hypersonic cruise missile that is logistically supportable in a combat environment and can defeat time-sensitive targets and hard and deeply buried targets. In the far term, the scramjet technology enables a Mach 8-10 strike/reconnaissance aircraft and affordable, on-demand access to space with aircraft like operations.
The HyTech program is the latest in a long series of Air Force efforts to prove the viability and utility of the supersonic combustion ramjet engine. The program is focused to establish a scramjet technology base with near term applications to hypersonic cruise missiles. This technology base can be expanded to include reusable hypersonic vehicles such as strike/reconnaissance and affordable access to space vehicles. The US Air Force established the HyTech Program in 1995 to maintain an aggressive technology development program in hypersonics after the National Aero-Space Plane’s development was terminated. In 1996, P&W won a $48-million contract for HySET.
By maturing scramjet propulsion, researchers will provide a key component to a new breed of propulsion systems known as the combined or combination cycle engines. These combine turbine, ramjet, scramjet and/or rocket engines, using each of the different cycles to the fullest advantage of their respective efficiencies to optimize overall system performance. Such propulsion systems have the potential to enable a family of vehicles, including global range, high speed aircraft, and “spaceplane” type vehicles for on-demand access to space.
As a variation of the ramjet, scramjets allow combustion to occur in a supersonic airflow, therefore eliminating the physical flow throttling characteristic of a conventional ramjet and expanding the operating range above Mach 6. Scientists realized during early experiments that evolving the well-known ramjet to a supersonic combustion engine was a challenging and complex task. In the ensuing years, scientists conducted several programs in the US with the objective of proving the scramjet as a viable propulsion system; however, none advanced to the flight test stage.
In 2001 a team of researchers from Air Force and industry achieved a major milestone on the development path to demonstrate a hydrocarbon-fueled, supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, engine. Such propulsive power will enable weapons that will dramatically increase range and decrease the reaction time when employed against high-value targets at long standoff ranges.
The supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine, developed by Pratt & Whitney under the Propulsion Directorate's Hypersonic Technology program, known as the performance test engine (PTE), is a heat sink, hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine demonstrator. In January 2001, the PTE made history when it became the first integrated scramjet engine to successfully operate at hypersonic speeds using conventional hydrocarbon fuels without the use of energetic additives. During the history-making test program, directorate engineers verified performance and operability of the engine in the Mach 4.5 to 6.5 flight regime.
The first key technology addressed was the slim thrust-to-drag margins inherent in supersonic combustion flow paths. Traditional methods of fuel/air mixing rely on physical protrusion into the flow such as a fuel strut. Frictional drag and structural cooling requirements increase as a result. HyTech scientists successfully minimized physical intrusions into the flow path to widen the thrust-to-drag margin. The PTE recorded net positive thrust and demonstrated good fuel/air mixing.
The second groundbreaking technology was development of fuel-cooled structures using endothermic fuels. Scientists designed the HyTech engine to run on JP-7 fuel to take advantage of hydrocarbon fuel volumetric energy density and its logistics availability. In the PTE, they simulated structural heating of JP-7 in a bench fuel heat exchanger/cracker. The heat exchanger delivered heated JP-7, or its cracked endothermic products, to the engine fuel injectors. The engine operated successfully at each test Mach number with the fuel in the appropriate thermodynamic state and composition. Further, scientists developed and demonstrated large-scale, fuel-cooled panels using nickel-based alloys. They tested these panels in a scramjet combustor at UTRC and in the Air Vehicles Directorate's Radiant Heating Facility. These components exceeded engine durability requirements.
A third success factor for the HyTech demonstration was limiting the target operating range of the engine to between Mach 4 and 8, a regime well suited for hydrocarbon operation. This allows scientists to design a fixed geometry engine, simplifying the structure and operation.
Built under the AFRL’s Propulsion Directorate’s HyTech program, the Performance Test Engine, or PTE, successfully completed a series of free jet tests at Mach 4.5 and 6.5. The PTE is an integrated engine with inlet, combustor, and nozzle. Pratt & Whitney developed this heavyweight, heat sink demonstrator engine under contract to AFRL. The tests were conducted at the GASL facilities at Ronkonkoma, New York. The PTE met or exceeded performance goals. The Performance Test Engine (PTE) garnered a 2001 Aviation Week Laureate Award for the scramjet development team.
The next step and culmination of the HyTech program was the flightweight Ground Demonstration Engine. This integrated scramjet engine will be fabricated with fuel-cooled structures that will demonstrate the performance, operation, and structural durability of this flight-type test engine.
To develop the GDE design, the Hydrocarbon Scramjet Engine Technology (HySET) team used a building-block approach that began with computational fluid dynamic codes. The world-class hypersonic codes define combustion products while optimizing the fueling locations and concentrations required for top performance. Computational results are used to refine engine lines, allowing optimization of the engine design prior to test.
Testing of the Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE) under the Propulsion Directorate’s Hypersonic Technology (HyTech) Program commenced on 6 September 2002. The GDE is a flightweight hydrocarbonfueled scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine demonstrator being developed by Pratt & Whitney under sponsorship of PR’s Aerospace Propulsion Office (AFRL/PRA). GDE testing was performed at the facilities of the GASL Division of Allied Aerospace Industries, Inc in Ronkonkoma, New York.
Testing of the fuel-cooled GDE moved beyond the PTE tests by demonstrating, for the first time ever, performance and structural durability of a flightweight hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet operating from Mach 4.5 to 6.5. Although the scramjet engine under development is sized for a tactical missile, the technologies being investigated have widespread applicability to high-speed airbreathing propulsion research. The maturation of high speed airbreathing propulsion technology is a critical step in the development of combined cycle engines that will enable more cost effective, on-demand access to space for future systems.
During numerous runs at Mach 4.5 and Mach 6.5 (September 2002 through June 2003), this ground demonstrator engine, known as GDE-1, reliably produced significant net positive thrust, which is important because it demonstrated the ability to efficiently burn fuel and accelerate a vehicle at these speeds. The thermal characteristics and structural durability of the engine were validated at both speeds.
By late 2003 the Propulsion Directorate completed freejet testing of the first generation Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE-1) as part of the Aerospace Propulsion Division's Hypersonic Technology program. GDE-1 is a flight-weight, fuel-cooled, hydrocarbon supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) ground test engine designed and built by Pratt & Whitney and tested at GASL's facilities in Ronkonkoma, New York. Directorate researchers teamed with these industrial partners to successfully demonstrate the operability and durability of the GDE-1 at two representative flight Mach numbers (M = 4.5 and M = 6.5). Notably, this was the world's first fuel-cooled scramjet engine to operate on conventional jet fuel.
Having successfully completed GDE-1 testing, the next step in the development process was to design, fabricate, and test the second generation Ground Demonstration Engine known as GDE-2. By early 2005 Smiths Aerospace of Manchester, Connecticut, completed fabrication of the 2nd generation Ground Demonstration Engine, or GDE-2. This scramjet engine was assembled under the Propulsion Directorate’s Hydrocarbon Scramjet Engine Technology (HySET) program with Pratt & Whitney. Using lessons learned from GDE-1, GDE-2 was designed and fabricated to demonstrate the operability, structural durability, and engine performance of a complete hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet propulsion system to be tested at Mach 5 and Mach 7.
In July 2005 Pratt & Whitney (P&W) Space Propulsion completed fabrication of a hypersonic Ground Demonstration Engine (GDE-2), successfully completing a three-phase, nine-year, $58 million contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The engine has a single flight-like flowpath with a bolted assembly, composite leading edge, closed-loop fuel system, and moveable inlet cowl flap. The engine was integrated with the forebody, pedestal, and instrumentation. It was then shipped to NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia, to be tested in the NASA LaRC 8-foot High Temperature Tunnel in October 2005 at Mach 5 flight conditions. Major test objectives were to demonstrate the closed loop fuel system, assess inlet performance and operability, assess operational characteristics of the hot gas valves, confirm engine light sequence, and verify design tools. This was the first time a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet propulsion system, which includes a single integrated flow path, fuel control system, closed-loop thermal management system and a Full Authority Digital Engine Control, was tested at hypersonic conditions.
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from globalsecurity.org:
SHOC - Stand-Off High-Speed Option for Counterproliferation
An advanced concept technology demo called SHOC (stand-off high-speed option for counterproliferation) was expected to involve ramjet technology, but fizzled owing to a lack of Pentagon support. The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the UK Defense Ministry planmed to collaborate on a next-generation supersonic strike weapon called SHOC (stand-off high-speed option for counterproliferation). SHOC is the successor to JSSCM (joint supersonic cruise missile), an earlier ramjet-powered missile intended to address high-speed strike requirements. This was also intended as an ACTD.
The effort was set to get underway in Fiscal 2004 as a Defense Dept. ACTD (advanced concept technology demonstration) with about $150 million in funding. Britain aimed to contribute around 10% of the overall costs.
The project is intended to explore development of a Mach 3.5-4.5 missile with a 400-600-naut.-mi. range. In its air-launched configuration, SHOC will have a threshold weight of no more than 2,000 lb. Accuracy is on the order of a 3-meter circular error probable. The target set also embraced sites associated with weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery, and generic time-critical, high-value targets. A minimum penetration of 33 ft. is required through concrete, with a desired capability of 55 ft.
A minimum of two full system demonstration flights will be carried out under the three-year program; one will be air-launched, while the other will replicate a vertical launch from a submarine, although it will be carried out from land.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Orbital Sciences were likely bidders. Given the velocity, range and weight goals, ramjet propulsion would have figured in most, if not all, of the bids. European missile manufacturer MBDA was bidding a ramjet engine design to Boeing. Some of the bids may also reflect development efforts that have been carried out in the black.
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from Defense Update:
Next Generation Missiles - LRASM
Long Range Strike Missile
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth $157 million for the development of an advanced long range anti ship missile (LRASM). The new anti-ship missile and its associated systems will extend the effective attack range of Navy warships beyond current or projected enemy anti-air and anti-ship capabilities. The new missile is required to counter the perceived threat from China, equipped with land based or shipborne ballistic missiles capable of targeting U.S. Carrier groups from a distance of hundreds of kilometers away.
Unlike current anti-ship missiles LRASM be capable of conducting autonomous targeting, relying on on-board targeting systems to independently acquire the target without the presence of prior, precision intelligence, or supporting services like Global Positioning Satellite navigation and data-links. As an autonomous weapon LRASM will rely exclusively on on-board sensors and processing systems. According to DARPA, these capabilities will enable positive target identification, precision engagement of moving ships and establishing of initial target cueing in extremely hostile environment. The missile will be designed with advanced counter-countermeasures,to effectively evade hostile active defense systems.
LRASM will comply with existing weapon launchers and storage systems, fitted to match existing the VL-41 Vertical Launch System carried on board all modern U.S. Navy combat ships. There are currently 8,500 VLS tubes in the US Navy including those based on cruisers (CG-47), destroyers (DDG-51) and submarines (SSN, SSGN).
Since 2009 Lockheed Martin has completed trade studies, system performance analysis, and passed preliminary design review and operational effectiveness assessment through the first phase. Two LRASM concepts were assessed - LRASM B, a high altitude, supersonic, ramjet-powered cruise missile. This design leverages prior ramjet development activities and a suite of supporting sensors and avionics to achieve a with balanced speed and stealth for robust performance. The second LRASM design is stealthier, low-level cruise-missile designated LRASM A. This design utilizing the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) airframe, added with additional sensors and systems to achieve a stealthy and survivable subsonic cruise missile. LRASM A is considered more suitable for air launched applications.
Phase 1 ended successfully and provided sufficient confidence in the two designs to support further investment for flight testing. The current 27 month second phase will refine these concepts, culminating in flight testing and a critical design review of the chosen design. As part of this second phase, LRASM-A will execute two air-launched demonstrations leveraging its JASSM-ER heritage and demonstrating applicability to Navy and Air Force tactical aircraft employment, while LRASM-B will complete four Vertical Launch System (VLS) demonstrations proving applicability to Navy surface combatant employment. Both LRASM-A and LRASM-B designs plan to support air-launch and VLS-launch configurations.
DARPA has selected three vendors to complete the design and flight demonstration of the two LRASM variants as well as deliver common sensor technology. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Strike Weapons, based in Orlando, Fla., will demonstrate the LRASM-A prototype weapon system while Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control Tactical Missiles, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, will demonstrate the LRASM-B prototype weapon system. BAE Systems, Information and Electronic Systems Integration, based in Nashua, N.H., will design and deliver the onboard sensor systems to support both LRASM variants.
While LRASM is positioned as a direct successor for the Harpoon, the development of a more ambitious weapon known as ArcLight is also under evaluation at DARPA as a quick reaction weapon hitting time critical targets at a distance of 2,000 nautical miles within 30 minutes. ArcLight will employ a rocket booster, sustainer accelerating the weapon to hypersonic speed, from where the strike vehicle will glide at high speed, carrying a warhead weighing 100-200 pounds to strike the target with pinpoint accuracy. ArcLight, like LRASM, will also be stored in, and launched from existing Mk 41 VLS.
"ArcLight will offer a game changing warfare capability." DARPA explained, "The ability to hit targets worldwide from several ships reduces the need for having less capable strike assets forward deployed and enables tactical and political flexibility. The cost of launching a comparable strike from Continental US (CONUS) is significant, likely to limit use of such a system and provides an opportunity for adversaries to observe launches from fixed sites" the agency explained. A major challenge for ArcLight designers is the design of a wing assembly able to transform from storage, through acceleration to high speed gliding formation. According to DARPA, such wings would likely use shape changing or harden post launch formations to withstand the flight environment.
Another design known as RATTLR (seen in the image above) was also studied by the US Navy in past years but has not matured into a full scale development program.
More on the Next Generation Missiles:
•Next Generation AEGIS Missile
•Missile Defense Roadmap
•Early Intercept Calls for Kills at Extended Range
•Introducing SM-3 IIB
•LRASM - Long Range Strike Missile
•T3 - Future Air Dominance Missile
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The Boeing X-51 Waverider
From youtube:
And this, from Wikipedia:
Boeing X-51
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
X-51
Artist's concept of X-51A during flight
Role: Robotic flight demonstrator
Manufacturer: Boeing
First flight: 26 May 2010[1]
Status: Flight testing
Primary user: United States Air Force
The Boeing X-51 is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic (Mach 6, approximately 4,000 miles per hour (6,400 km/h) at altitude) flight testing. It successfully completed its first free-flight on 26 May 2010 and also achieved the longest duration flight at speeds over Mach 5.[1][2]
The X-51 Waverider program is run as a cooperative effort of the United States Air Force, DARPA, NASA, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The program is managed by the Propulsion Directorate within the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).[3] The X-51 had its first captive flight attached to a B-52 in December 2009.
Design and development
In the 1990s the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) began the HyTECH program for hypersonic propulsion. Pratt & Whitney received a contract from the AFRL to develop a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine which led to the development of the SJX61 engine. The SJX61 engine was originally meant for NASA's X-43C, which was eventually canceled. The engine was applied to the AFRL's Scramjet Engine Demonstrator program in late 2003.[4] The scramjet flight test vehicle was designated X-51 on 27 September 2005.[5]
X-51A under the wing of a B-52 at Edwards Air Force Base, July 2009
In flight demonstrations, the X-51 is carried by a B-52 to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15.2 kilometers) and then released over the Pacific Ocean.[6] The X-51 is initially propelled by an MGM-140 ATACMS solid rocket booster to approximately Mach 4.5, before it is jettisoned. Then the vehicle's Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet takes over and accelerates it to a top flight speed near Mach 6.[7][8]
Previously DARPA viewed X-51 as a stepping stone to Blackswift,[9] a planned hypersonic demonstrator which was canceled in October 2008.[10]
Testing
Ground tests of the X-51A began in late 2006. A preliminary version of the X-51, the "Ground Demonstrator Engine No. 2", completed wind tunnel tests at the NASA Langley Research Center on 27 July 2006.[11] Testing continued there until a simulated X-51 flight at Mach 5 was successfully completed on 30 April 2007.[12][13]
SJX61-2 engine successfully completes ground tests simulating Mach 5 flight conditions.
The testing is intended to observe acceleration between Mach 4 and Mach 6 and to demonstrate that hypersonic thrust "isn't just luck".[14][15] Four test flights were initially planned for 2009, but the first captive flight of the X-51A on a B-52 was not conducted until 9 December 2009,[16][17] with further captive flights in early 2010.[18][19]
The first powered flight of the X-51 was planned for 25 May 2010, but the presence of a freighter transiting a portion of the Naval Air Station Point Mugu Sea Range caused a 24 hour postponement.[20] The X-51 completed its first powered flight successfully on 26 May 2010 by flying for over 200 seconds and reaching a speed of Mach 5; it did not meet the planned 300 second flight duration, however.[1][2] The flight had the longest scramjet burn time of 140 seconds. The X-43 had the previous longest flight burn time of 12 seconds,[2][21][22] while setting a new speed record of Mach 9.8 (12,144 km/h, 7,546 mph).
Three more test flights were planned and will use the same flight trajectory.[21] Boeing proposed to the Air Force Research Laboratory that two test flights be added in order to increase the total to six, with flights taking place at four to six week intervals, assuming there are no failures.[23]
The second test flight was initially scheduled for 24 March 2011,[24] but was not conducted due to unfavorable test conditions.[25] The flight took place on 13 June 2011. However, the flight over the Pacific Ocean ended early due to an inlet unstart event after being boosted to Mach 5 speed. The flight data from the test is being investigated.[26]
Specifications
Data from Global Security[27]
Crew: Not applicable
Length: 26 ft in (7.9 m)
Empty weight: 4,000 lb (1,814 kg)
Maximum speed: Mach 7+
See also
United States Air Force portal
Waverider
Flight airspeed record
Related development NASA X-43
References
1.^ a b c Warwick, Graham. "First X-51A Hypersonic Flight Deemed Success". Aviation Week, 26 May 2010.
2.^ a b c "Boeing X-51A WaveRider Breaks Record in 1st Flight". Boeing, 26 May 2010.
3.^ "Successful Design Review and Engine Test Bring Boeing X-51A Closer to Flight". Boeing. 1 June 2007.
4.^ Warwick, Graham. "X-51A to demonstrate first practical scramjet". Flight International, 20 July 2007.
5.^ "Propulsion Directorate Monthly Accomplishment Report". US Air Force, September 2005.[dead link]
6.^ "WaveRider makes first flight". Air Force Times. 21 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
7.^ "Successful Design Review and Engine Test Bring Boeing X-51A Closer to Flight". Boeing, 1 June 2007. Retrieved: 28 July 2008.
8.^ "X-51A Waverider flight planned for May 25". US Air Force, 20 May 2010. Retrieved: 20 May 2010.
9.^ Berger, Brian."NASA Helping U.S. Air Force Gear Up for 2009 X-51 Flights". Space.com, 8 September 2008.
10.^ Trimble, Stephen. "DARPA cancels Blackswift hypersonic test bed". Flightglobal.com, 13 October 2008.
11.^ "Completes Mach 5 Testing Of Hypersonic Propulsion System". Accessed: 28 July 2008.
12.^ "Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Revolutionary Scramjet Engine Successfully Powers First X-51A Simulated Flight". Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, 30 April 2007.
13.^ "AIAA HyTASP Program Committee Inaugural Newsletter". AIAA, April 2008.
14.^ Coppinger, Rob (6 August 2009) "Hypersonic X-51A gets December launch date". Flight Global. Retrieved: 29 April 2010.
15.^ "Hypersonic Test Flight On Track". Aviation Week, 5 August 2009.
16.^ "X-51A WaveRider gets first ride aboard B-52". Edwards AFB News, 11 December 2009.
17.^ "X-51A WaveRider Gets First Ride Aboard B-52", Spacetravel.com, 18 December 2009
18.^ "X-51 getting ready for first flight". USAF Edwards AFB News, 4 March 2010.
19.^ "X-51A flight planned May 25". US Air Force, 20 May 2010.
20.^ "Shipping traffic delays X-51A launch". USAF. 26 May 2010.
21.^ a b "X-51 Waverider makes historic hypersonic flight". US Air Force, 26 May 2010.
22.^ Croft, John. "". Flight International, 27 May 2010.
23.^ Trimble, Stephen (31 March 2009). "X-51A flight may lead to B version". Flight International: 9.
24.^ Hennigan, W. J., "Retest Is Set For Hypersonic Craft", Los Angeles Times, 24 March 2011, p. B2.
25.^ Croft, John. "Air Force launches mission, opts not to drop X-51A". Flight International, 25 March 2011.
26.^ "Second X-51 hypersonic flight ends prematurely". Flight International. 15 June 2011.
27.^ X-51. globalsecurity.org
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