JAISWAL
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Pentagon’s Mach 20 Missile Ready for Ultimate Test | Danger Room | Wired.com
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.
The Defense Department is pursuing three
different families of technologies to
accomplish the task. One is to rearm
nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles
with conventional warheads. But that runs
the risk of accidentally triggering a response
from another atomic power, who might
mistake it for a nuke. Oops.
A second effort is to build shorter-range
cruise missiles that can fly at five or six
times the speed of sound. But that X-51
Waverider project is running into
complications: A June flight test ended
prematurely, for reasons that are still
unclear.
Some variation of the HTV-2 is the third
choice; to some in the defense community,
it's the most appealing. The HTV-2 spends
most of its time flying through the
atmosphere , before it dives down to hits its
target. That means it's unlikely to be
mistaken for a nuclear missile, which
spends most of its time above the
atmosphere. World War III averted.
Yet despite the aircraft's potentially
revolutionary role — and despite the tens of
millions of dollars poured into the Falcon
program every year — Darpa was
somewhat cavalier in its first test of HTV-2.
The HTV-2 has an unusual, wedge shape;
think of it like a 13,000 mph slice of deep-
dish pizza. In theory, the shape should
provide more lift. But few people had flown
anything quite like the HTV-2 at these
intense speeds before.
.
.....,,..for full article go to above link
.
.
The Defense Department is pursuing three
different families of technologies to
accomplish the task. One is to rearm
nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles
with conventional warheads. But that runs
the risk of accidentally triggering a response
from another atomic power, who might
mistake it for a nuke. Oops.
A second effort is to build shorter-range
cruise missiles that can fly at five or six
times the speed of sound. But that X-51
Waverider project is running into
complications: A June flight test ended
prematurely, for reasons that are still
unclear.
Some variation of the HTV-2 is the third
choice; to some in the defense community,
it's the most appealing. The HTV-2 spends
most of its time flying through the
atmosphere , before it dives down to hits its
target. That means it's unlikely to be
mistaken for a nuclear missile, which
spends most of its time above the
atmosphere. World War III averted.
Yet despite the aircraft's potentially
revolutionary role — and despite the tens of
millions of dollars poured into the Falcon
program every year — Darpa was
somewhat cavalier in its first test of HTV-2.
The HTV-2 has an unusual, wedge shape;
think of it like a 13,000 mph slice of deep-
dish pizza. In theory, the shape should
provide more lift. But few people had flown
anything quite like the HTV-2 at these
intense speeds before.
.
.....,,..for full article go to above link
