The U.S. Military Could Have A Working Hypersonic Missile In Record Time
.
By Caleb Larson
June 04, 2021
The U.S. Navy recently tested the motor that will power hypersonic missiles for both the Army and the Navy. The successful live-fire engine test paves the way for the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike to move forward.
“The first stage SRM will be part of a new missile booster for the services, and will be combined with a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB) to create the common hypersonic missile,” a Navy release stated. “Each service will use the common hypersonic missile, while developing individual weapon systems and launchers tailored for launch from sea or land. This successful SRM test represents a critical milestone leading up to the next Navy and Army joint flight test, which will take place in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2022, and ultimately the fielding of the CPS and LRHW weapon systems.”
Both the Navy’s CPS and the Army’s LRHW programs aim to field a boost-glide hypersonic weapon, a type of hypersonic missile that like intercontinental ballistic missiles, requires a rocket booster to reach altitude, at which point the rocket payload — a glide body — would release and glide down to Earth. Gliding is a bit of a misnomer, however, as hypersonic glide bodies achieve blisteringly high terminal velocities in excess of Mach 5.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/06/04/the_us_military_could_have_a_working_hypersonic_missile_in_record_time_780029.html
