U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
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Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#2It was an AGM-183 ARRW. The test on the 14th hit Mach 5, but they claim a theoretical top speed of Mach 20.
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#3It was an AGM-183 ARRW. The test on the 14th hit Mach 5, but they claim a theoretical top speed of Mach 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-183_ARRW
Reading through the timeline on that page, it sounds like Congress has decided to kill the project. I wonder if this successful test will turn that around.
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#4I believe most explosives detonate in the air anymore.
Is there a speed threshold where the kinetic energy is enough to justify not doing that?
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#5It was an AGM-183 ARRW. The test on the 14th hit Mach 5, but they claim a theoretical top speed of Mach 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-183_ARRW
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Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#6>> "Following separation from the aircraft, the ARRW's booster ignited and burned for expected duration, achieving hypersonic speeds five times greater than the speed of sound," it said.
Big deal. The booster is just a rocket. And Mach numbers are meaningless without altitude reference. Anything that travels to the outer atmosphere/space will hit extreme Mach numbers on the way up/down. So without any further data the above statement means little more than "we fired a big rocket". Did the sustainment motor, the air-breathing thing that differentiates a true hypersonic from every other rocket, did that motor function in cruise mode? Or is this essentially just a boost-glide ballistic missile?
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#7Probably just us flexing that we have them too. Likely have had them, but kept it quiet as no need to declare our capabilities. Since others are crowing about it, just letting them know we also have same.
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#8It was an AGM-183 ARRW. The test on the 14th hit Mach 5, but they claim a theoretical top speed of Mach 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-183_ARRW
Mach 20 is so fast. It's around the Earth at the equator (ground level) in two hours.
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#9Probably just us flexing that we have them too. Likely have had them, but kept it quiet as no need to declare our capabilities. Since others are crowing about it, just letting them know we also have same.
Absolutely. I also don't believe that they "only" go 5x the speed of sound. That's most likely just the speed they're willing to disclose, and the actual speed is classified.
Re: U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
#10How much of this is hype and boasting about military advances. According to this article hypersonic missiles are far from practical https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-physics-and-h...