U.S. tests hypersonic weapon

U.S. tests hypersonic weapon | Defense Technology News at DefenseTalk

By RIA Novosti on Monday, November 21st, 2011
The U.S. Army has conducted the first flight test of a new weapon concept designed to fly within the earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed and long range, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command launched the Advance Hypersonic Weapon (AHW), “a first-of-its-kind glide vehicle,” at 17:30 GMT Thursday from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii. It hit its designated target at the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll, about 2,300 miles away.

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If this is what I think it is, then it will be extremely difficult to stop.

I wonder how long it will be before China or some other country get their hands on it assuming they already haven't. Just because you can make something doesn't mean you should.

I wish our government and its corporate lackies would stop creating weapons of devastation and perpetuating war. It's all fueled by interventionism and hawkish foreign policy. The countless billions probably put into this project could have been used for any number of other productive economic activities. But I guess the war hawks are in control of government now, so.

Temporal said:

I wish our government and its corporate lackies would stop creating weapons of devastation and perpetuating war. It's all fueled by interventionism and hawkish foreign policy. The countless billions probably put into this project could have been used for any number of other productive economic activities. But I guess the war hawks are in control of government now, so.

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You do realize that spending money on developing military weapons and machines is something our government has been doing for decades, this is not something new or just recent. Most likely this thing has probably been kept secret for a long period of time and not something that was developed recently.

I don't get it, why use a conventional missile to get it up?

Matt Foley said:

I don't get it, why use a conventional missile to get it up?

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It's experimental.

Temporal said:

I wish our government and its corporate lackies would stop creating weapons of devastation and perpetuating war. It's all fueled by interventionism and hawkish foreign policy. The countless billions probably put into this project could have been used for any number of other productive economic activities. But I guess the war hawks are in control of government now, so.

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Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Matt Foley said:

I don't get it, why use a conventional missile to get it up?

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Because Viagra just wasn't doing the trick :shrug:

American said:

If this is what I think it is, then it will be extremely difficult to stop.

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If it's what I think it is, the Germans envisioned something similar in the early 40's. Old idea with a new twist.

Lokiate said:

If it's what I think it is, the Germans envisioned something similar in the early 40's. Old idea with a new twist.

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Not all that hard to stop. As long as they can be detected far enough away, pretty much any missile can be intercepted.

The Germans thought that originally with the V1. Then they found out how to defend against the V-1. Then you had the V-2. Then they destroyed the launch sites for the V-2.

Then Nazi Germany fell, end of war.

Oozlefinch said:

Not all that hard to stop. As long as they can be detected far enough away, pretty much any missile can be intercepted.

The Germans thought that originally with the V1. Then they found out how to defend against the V-1. Then you had the V-2. Then they destroyed the launch sites for the V-2.

Then Nazi Germany fell, end of war.

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Not the V1, and V2, they had designed an experimental aircraft that would make its flights in the stratosphere, and drop it's payload from that height. In theory the delivery aircraft, called the Silbervogel (silver bird), would skip across the currents of the stratosphere traveling at an estimated speed around Mach 2, drop its payload that, from that height would easily reach terminal velocity, then glide into the Japanese held territories before anybody knew wtf had happened. Thankfully, they were never able to build it.

Just for ****s n giggles, this is a pic of the Silbervogel:



Compared to the Boeing X-51 project:



Eugen Sänger, who designed the Silbervogel, was very instrumental in the creation of the Space Shuttle, and his work influenced designs for other experimental aircraft. Operation Paperclip apparently continues to pay off.

After poking around a bit I see this one is supposed to fly at around Mach 8, which is mighty impressive. I'm hoping they'll try again with the HTV-2, which is expected to fly at around Mach 20. Far better. If that can work then, Good bye bunker.

Lokiate said:

Not the V1, and V2, they had designed an experimental aircraft that would make its flights in the stratosphere, and drop it's payload from that height. In theory the delivery aircraft, called the Silbervogel (silver bird), would skip across the currents of the stratosphere traveling at an estimated speed around Mach 2, drop its payload that, from that height would easily reach terminal velocity, then glide into the Japanese held territories before anybody knew wtf had happened. Thankfully, they were never able to build it.

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The Germans had a lot of fantastical "Buck Rogers" kind of projects. Most of them went nowhere, or ended in failure. Hitler surely had a complex, because the Germans went over the top in just about anything they planned. I mean, who else builds 300 mm cannons, 200 ton tanks with 128mm main guns, and cruisers with battleship guns?

Lokiate said:

Eugen Sänger, who designed the Silbervogel, was very instrumental in the creation of the Space Shuttle, and his work influenced designs for other experimental aircraft. Operation Paperclip apparently continues to pay off.

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I wonder if anybody else other then you or I even know what Paperclip is. Being both a Space and History nut, I loved my chance out in White Sands to get to see many of those old launch sites. Every time I had to drive from one site to another, I took a different route so I could see as much as possible.

Oozlefinch said:

The Germans had a lot of fantastical "Buck Rogers" kind of projects. Most of them went nowhere, or ended in failure. Hitler surely had a complex, because the Germans went over the top in just about anything they planned. I mean, who else builds 300 mm cannons, 200 ton tanks with 128mm main guns, and cruisers with battleship guns?

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I guess Germans have tiny dicks. Plus, with the materials of the era, I doubt the Silbervogel would have done anything but get ripped apart from the immense pressures of stratospheric flight at Mach 2 speeds.

I wonder if anybody else other then you or I even know what Paperclip is. Being both a Space and History nut, I loved my chance out in White Sands to get to see many of those old launch sites. Every time I had to drive from one site to another, I took a different route so I could see as much as possible.

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I'm sure there are others, but not many. Kinda torn on how to feel about, but it happened, so **** it. WSMR was a pretty amazing place. Every day after COB, I'd go for a hike in the desert. It's really beautiful, but unfortunately, there isn't much else to do there. Before I left, the Post CSM pretty much made it clear that all the money for cool new things was to go straight into a new gym that nobody asked for. ****in Army.