{"id":82522,"date":"2018-03-02T17:15:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T17:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/02\/as-putin-touts-hypersonic-weapons-america-prepares-its-own-arsenal-will-it-be-in-time\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:21:30","slug":"as-putin-touts-hypersonic-weapons-america-prepares-its-own-arsenal-will-it-be-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/02\/as-putin-touts-hypersonic-weapons-america-prepares-its-own-arsenal-will-it-be-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"As Putin touts hypersonic weapons, America prepares its own arsenal. Will it be in time?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his military has successfully tested a hypersonic cruise missile<\/a>, the head of the Pentagon\u2019s high-tech workshop says the U.S. is on track for a series of hypersonic prototype tests<\/a> in the coming years, thanks to a big spending increase in the fiscal year 2019 budget request<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with that funding boost, Steven Walker, the director of the Pentagon\u2019s DARPA, warned that it is time for America to come to grips with the fact that a national push is needed if the U.S. is to keep pace with competitors in the hypersonic realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hypersonic flight \u2014 going Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound \u2014 has been a dream of military planners for years, for obvious reasons. Any weapon system able to move that quickly would be able to avoid conventional missile and air defenses, and would have benefits both for manned or unmanned systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the U.S. has experimented on the technology for years, if Putin is to be believed, such a weapon is now part of its arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of his annual state of the union speech, Putin formally unveiled the Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon that he claimed is now undergoing final trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is the only one of its kind in the world. Its tests have been successfully completed, and, moreover, on Dec. 1 of last year, these systems began their trial service at the airfields of the Southern Military District,\u201d Putin said, according to an English transcript<\/a> posted by the Russian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe missile flying at a hypersonic speed, 10 times faster than the speed of sound, can also maneuver at all phases of its flight trajectory, which also allows it to overcome all existing and, I think, prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, delivering nuclear and conventional warheads in a range of over 2,000 kilometers,\u201d Putin added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial reaction from analysts to Putin\u2019s statement was a mix of concern and skepticism, but it underlines a fear<\/a> that has grown inside the Pentagon over the last few years \u2013 that Russia and China are poised to leapfrog the U.S. in a technology that could fundamentally hold the American military, and public, at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if the U.S. is not the sole leader in this technology, Gen. Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, believes the U.S. isn\u2019t quite yet doomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have lost our technical advantage in hypersonics,\u201d Selva said Jan. 30<\/a> at an event hosted by the Defense Writers\u2019 Group. \u201cWe haven\u2019t lost the hypersonics fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas both those nations threw a ton of money at developing a specific capability, the U.S. has invested to \u201ccome up with a family of hypersonic systems that work without necessarily trying to close all the technology pieces at the front end,\u201d Selva said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A computer simulation shows the Avangard hypersonic vehicle maneuvering to bypass missile defenses en route to target. (RU-RTR Russian Television via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

DARPA\u2019s Hypersonic Family<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the U.S. will get the capability, but it\u2019s going to come through a series of individual programs rather than creating a singular, perfect system right away. Which is where DARPA comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While various offices around the Pentagon, including in the Air Force and Navy, are looking at hypersonics capability, DARPA is the hub for the research. And that research is coming around, Walker said during a Defense Writers\u2019 Group event Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to start flying these systems in 2019, you\u2019ll see lots of flight tests, and we\u2019re excited that these will be systems that will be very capable that we can use from standoff\u201d range, Walker said. \u201cThese are not going to be just flying propulsion concepts through the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get there, however, the agency needs funding. The DARPA head told reporters that last spring, he and a team went over to the Pentagon to hold a frank conversation with Bob Work, then-deputy secretary of defense, about the global state of hypersonic weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency \u201creally tried to convince the department that we need a national initiative in this area,\u201d Walker explained. \u201cWe did push for a very comprehensive initiative in the budget process this fall, we did receive a budget increase at DARPA and in some of the services to do more in hypersonics. I don\u2019t think we got everything we wanted, but it was a good first step.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARPA\u2019s funding lines for hypersonic research have grown significantly in the last three budget requests. In FY17, Congress appropriated $85.5 million for hypersonics. That went up to $108.6 million in the FY18 request, a 27 percent increase. And for the recently released FY19 request, the figure shoots up to $256.7 million \u2014 a whopping 136 percent increase, but still a fairly low figure by Pentagon standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the programs being pursued by DARPA in FY19 are the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) at $14.3 million and Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) program at $139.4 million, both as a partnership with the Air Force. The HAWC should be up and flying about through 2019, while the TBG program is aiming for an operational prototype in the 2022-2023 range, according to Walker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency is also working with the Army<\/a> on a $50 million Operational Fires demonstration program, looking to see how ground-launched hypersonic systems could work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, DARPA got $53 million for the Advanced Full Range Engine<\/a> program, a cooperation with NASA to create a hybrid engine that combines a traditional off-the-shelf turbine engine capable of supersonic speed with a dual-mode ramjet to transition to hypersonic flight. The expectation is there will be ground tests of the engine in 2019 or 2020, in an existing NASA test facility, but when a flight test might happen is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That program is particularly important, because if it proves out, it would provide a reusable hypersonic capability \u2014 which opens up the potential for manned hypersonic flight in the future. But whether that is an avenue worth pursuing whole heartedly is still up for debate, at least according to Selva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA manned hypersonic capability out in the future is still something that is a question of, can you scale hypersonics, small, highly maneuverable, high G, sturdy machines as something you\u2019d put a human in?\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not sure that that one would invest the money to make that transition,\u201d Selva continued. \u201cWhen you can make weapons hypersonic, it\u2019s probably not a requirement to make platforms hypersonic. That\u2019s the sort of trade space we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia claims it has a hypersonic weapon. Has the U.S. fallen behind the hypersonic race, and if so, what can be done?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[13,16,65,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3273],"class_list":["post-82522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HHBPFXZ4QZCTBLF6DOXCT6YBV4","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2018\/03\/02\/as-putin-touts-hypersonic-weapons-america-prepares-its-own-arsenal-will-it-be-in-time\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\nAs Putin touts hypersonic weapons, America prepares its own arsenal. 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