The US Air Force is expecting industry information on hypersonic cruise missile technology in the hope of launching a new prototype program soon, Defense News reported.
The Air Force sent a notice on April 27, asking industrial companies to provide information on hypersonic cruise missiles with jet engines and conventional warheads that could be launched from fighters and bombers.
Industry responses will help the Air Force determine whether to start financing a new program and find out how quickly it will be possible to adopt new weapons as a result of its implementation, said Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper.
“In the case of how fast we could go with the scramjet technology getting into cruise missile and missionizing it, I think we can go fast,” he told reporters April 30. “I don’t know how fast — that’s why we’re reaching out to the street. But given how far scramjet technology has matured, I’d expect that we’ll be able to go pretty quickly on this.”
Following the proposal received, the Air Force will seek to conduct a preliminary analysis of the project in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2021. The technologies offered should feature ramjet, scramjet, or dual-mode propulsion — a major difference from the hypersonic weapons currently under development by the Defense Department, which all boost glide missiles.
“We will have greater flexibility with this as a whole. That’s one reason we’re interested in accelerating the technology. It’s mature, it’s ready. It will give our operators greater flexibility.”
“In the case of boost glide technology, a lot of our major programs in the department go to the same suppliers,” in part because those companies have pioneered materials and components that have not been replicated throughout industry, Roper said. “One of the reasons I’m excited about starting a hypersonic cruise missile program is that we will have different suppliers. It’s a very different technology.”
According to Roper, the hypersonic cruise missile effort would involve inputs from the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In particular, DARPA’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC, effort could inform the new program. As part of the effort, a Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team and a Lockheed Martin-Aerojet Rocketdyne team are building scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicles.
“Scramjet technology has come a long way. I have been exceptionally impressed by what new manufacturing techniques are enabling,” Roper said. “I entered this job thinking scramjet will probably be a step behind boost glide. I am delighted to say that I was wrong. Scramjet is much more mature and ready to go than I originally thought.”
The Air Force can begin to implement a new program of hypersonic weapons just a few months after the closure of one of two development programs, the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon, or HCSW. Although HCSW showed promise and was on track for flight tests, the service killed it the fiscal 2021 budget rollout this February in favor of the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon.
Both ARRW and HCSW are boost-glide weapons made by Lockheeds, but the Air Force decided to use ARRW because it was more affordable and could be carried in larger quantities by the B-52 and F-15 aircraft, Roper said.
