Office of Advanced Research Projects of the Pentagon (DARPA) introduced the concept of the interceptor of hypersonic weapons Glide Breaker. It is assumed that a new US weapon will be able to shoot down Russian or Chinese hypersonic missiles, the American edition of The Drive reported this. About work on the program in DARPA was reported during the exhibition D60, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of management and held in the USA on September 5-7.
On the technical characteristics and principles of the Glide Breaker is still not known - the project is at the earliest stage. The DARPA was only informed that this designed aircraft would be small in size and would not carry any weapons. He himself will act as a projectile, knocking down enemy hypersonic missiles with his own mass - in DARPA this principle of work was called "kinetic interception".
Questions like Glide Breaker will track the trajectory of the enemy's hypersonic missile and what characteristics will allow the device to overtake it at the right time and at the right point remains open.
"The goal of the Glide Breaker program is to enhance the capabilities of the United States to protect against supersonic weapons and all classes of hypersonic threats," the administration said earlier.
At the same time, in its budget request for the fiscal year 2019, DARPA did not lay special expenses on the Glide Breaker program, as well as on any other development of hypersonic protection, the American press notes.
First of all, the Pentagon is concerned about the latest developments presented by the Russian military-industrial complex, as well as the activity of Chinese developers in the field of hypersonic weapons.
Currently, the US does not have either weapons of a similar class, or means of protection against hypersonic missiles. This was announced in March this year by the director of the US missile defense agency Gary Pennet. According to him, the missile defense system deployed by the US military is simply unable to intercept the hypersonic missiles developed in Russia in time.
With this assessment, Barry Blechman, the founder of the Stimson Center, the agency for the fight against the spread of nuclear weapons, and the head of DARPA, Stephen Walker, agreed that the US authorities allocate insufficient funding for such developments. Speaking in the summer in Congress, the Pentagon's deputy head, Michael Griffin, announced the rapid loss of the US military advantage over "unfriendly" states.
"The United States still does not do everything to adequately respond to the threats posed by hypersonic missiles," he said.
"Dagger" in the heart of the Pentagon
The idea of creating hypersonic aircraft for defense purposes attracted the leading world powers in the last century. In the Soviet Union and the United States, there have even been a number of experimental developments in this field.
For example, in both countries research was conducted on the creation of orbital planes-cosmoplanes of vertical launch, in which it was planned to apply hypersonic technology. However, then such ideas were not destined to be realized. As the experts note, at that time there were not even materials capable of withstanding hypersonic flight loads at a speed equal to 5 mah and more.
A new stage in the field of hypersonic technology began in the 2000s. In the US, the most successful project in this area is the X-51 Waverider hypersonic missile developed by Boeing Corporation. Work on the project began in 2003, and the first successful test of the device took place in 2013. But judging by the Pentagon's alarmist statements, the old US developments in the hypersonic field can not yet satisfy the military's demands.
Simultaneously, similar developments were launched by Russia and China. Speaking on March 1, 2018 before the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed some details of a number of the latest developments of the military-industrial complex capable of changing the balance of strategic forces in the future.
The head of state also spoke about the aviation hypersonic complex "Dagger", which by that time had already passed tests and even took up an experienced combat duty from December 1 last year.
"The unique flight characteristics of a high-speed carrier aircraft allow the missile to be delivered to the discharge point in minutes. At the same time, a rocket flying at a hypersonic speed exceeding the speed of sound by a factor of ten, also maneuver, "Putin said.
This is not the only successful development in the hypersonic field, created in Russia. A formidable weapon of deterrence is the "Avangard" combat unit, capable of speeding up to 20 Mach (about 24 thousand km / h) - to date no missile defense can stop an object moving at such a speed. This complex will be equipped with an intercontinental ballistic missile (RSBM) RS-28 "Sarmat", which is planned to be adopted in the next year. To date, the hypersonic complex "Avangard" has already entered mass production, this was previously reported to the Ministry of Defense.
In the foreseeable future, Russian Navy submarines will also be equipped with anti-ship 3M22 ZIRCON sea cruise missiles capable of speeding 6-7 mah.
"In search of a black cat"
The news that Russia has a whole range of hypersonic weapons shocked the Western defense community and spurred the Pentagon's efforts to create missiles of a similar class. Already in April, the US Air Force command signed a $ 928 million contract with the aircraft building company Lockheed Martin to develop and produce a hypersonic cruise missile. According to Defense News, the agreement implies not only the design of the missile, but also "support for all elements of long-range hypersonic and conventional weapons, as well as air-based weapons." The intention to speed up work in this area was confirmed to journalists by US Air Force spokesman Anne Stefanek. It is assumed that the first prototype rocket will be ready by 2022-2023.
But this is only part of the task facing the Pentagon - in addition to creating its own hypersonic armament, the American side must also develop means of hypersonic defense.
Defense missiles deployed on the sea and on land are simply not capable of handling hypersonic missiles.
- General John Hayten
- Reuters
- © Yuri Gripas
Therefore, the rate can be made for "zatamosfernye interceptors", placed in orbit. For example, the head of Strategic Command (STRATCOM) of the US Armed Forces, General John Hayten, earlier proposed to develop similar systems. At the beginning of the year, at the conference of the Association for Antiaircraft and Missile Defense of the United States, the general called for a focus on the development of space-based weapons.
"Such a sensor could track a missile in the middle section of the ballistic trajectory, and also observe and find from outer space other emerging threats, such as hypersound," said Hayten. After the hypersonic object is detected, the data can be transferred to ground and sea missile defense.
The Americans simply do not have a choice but to think about the withdrawal of the means to combat Russian hypersound into orbit, said military expert Mikhail Khodaryonok in a conversation with RT. According to him, the deployment of tracking equipment in outer space is not prohibited by international agreements, in contrast to the withdrawal of percussion weapons beyond the terrestrial atmosphere. Specialists note that it is possible to track the launch of a hypersonic rocket from an orbit in a shorter time than from the Earth.
"Rocket workers have such a concept -" working time ". This is the interval from the detection of the air target until the launch of the interceptor, "explained Mikhail Khodaryonok. - During this time it is necessary to make a whole complex of works, and if we are talking about hypersonic speed, the work time will be shortened to just seconds. This time can be increased only by tracking the launch at an early stage, and this can only be done from outer space. Therefore, there is nothing strange in the Pentagon's plans. "
At the same time, the expert noted that large countries already have over-atmospheric tracking facilities, which are part of the missile nuclear strike warning systems, both in the United States and in Russia.
Khodaryonok stressed that the creation of Glide Breaker is a very difficult task, even if the tracking equipment will be placed in space. The point is that the interceptor needs to develop no less speed than the hypersonic missile itself, and high accuracy of the trajectory must be observed.
"The defeat of the conventional high-explosive fragmentation in this case is almost unrealistic, therefore, in fact, it will most likely be a kinetic interception. And this puts very high demands on locating and tracking guidance. The DARPA concept is the first application of this kind, in fact, it is a declaration of intent. It is not yet known how much such work will be effective, "the expert believes.
The concept presented by DARPA does not say anything to specialists, these are only general words, said military expert Viktor Litovkin. He believes that representatives of the Pentagon, when talking about the creation of Glide Breaker, simply imitate a stormy activity.
"This is an advertisement of what does not even exist yet, the search for a black cat in a dark room, a speculative idea. The motives that guided DARPA, publishing this concept, are understandable. First of all, they want to show that they are doing some work, that they are still "cool" no matter what. And besides, it can calm the American public, alarmed by the wailing of higher military officials about the backlog of Russia and China in the sphere of hypersonic weapons, "Litovkin summed up.