[lbryce]

May Obama's re-election be as awesome a failure.

[Lazamataz]

Someday, DARPA might look into researching and creating camera technology that doesn't involve someone's handheld shaky camera phone, where you can see more than a dot.

I know, it's a crazy thought, but it could happen.

[shove_it]

Speedy glider ... for a short time.

[Fresh Wind]

It was a spectacular failure that was much publicized by the press...

The purpose of testing is to weed out problems, and then fix them. This is a concept that is foreign to members of the "press", who salivate at every opportunity to criticize the military in general, and military R&D in particular.

[Noob1999]

Why does DARPA release this news? Why does DARPA show us the shape of this thing??

Maybe they want China to perfect the technology before we figure it out.

Read my tagline!

[Nowhere Man]

Fiscally, I can't really see the need for this, we already have such a system to deliver a bomb to anyplace on Earth within 30 minutes that has been available since the late 1950's, the ICBM. We even have SLBM's approaching what ICBM's can do, basically, this is a money waster.

I'm for funding the military and making sure they have the tools we need but we need to make sure they have the stuff they need currently, which in realty, we are cutting where we should not right now. I just think we need to make sure they have what we need down here on Earth and make sure we fund the right tings like missile defense.

Mach 20 bombers may sound impressive but when you think about it, they will most likely wind up being money/time wasters and hanger queens due to the resources, maintenance and logistics they need. Why go that far when we already have ICBM's unless you want to around some sort of treaties, then again, treaties are made to be broken.

Just my opinion though.

[ryan71]

They learned how to control at vehicle at mach 20. That’s about it.

[swamprebel]

Analysis of Space Shuttle Columbia’s re-entry at 17,000 mph was about as useful as this DARPA’s release.

[darth]

May I remind my fellow Freepers of previous elaborate disinformation campaigns where DoD successfully misled our enemies. For example, before the Stealth Fighter was unveiled, Aviation Week magazine routinely published drawings and purported photos of it. When the real bird debuted, it looked nothing like the disinformation.

DoD SHOULD practice such deceptions on our enemies. It is unfortunate that this misleads civilians, but civvies DO NOT HAVE A NEED TO KNOW.

In the current situation, I hope the guys in uniform deceive the commies in the Maladministration along with everyone else. I trust them far more than I do the pols, appointees, and GS.

As for the DARPA “failure” I would ask:

Was this the real bird?

Are we trying to get our enemies to spend enormous sums defending against a program that is vaporware? We did that with Reagan’s SDI. The Russkies were totally flummoxed at the vast arsenal of Star Wars weapons we were researching. Most consisted of briefing charts. Most were totally unfeasible.

Finally, I remember trying to get a USAF scientist to fly his experiment on board the Space Shuttle in 1983. He adamantly refused. He explained: “If I fly the experiment on a sounding rocket and it fails, no one will know. If I fly it on the Shuttle and it fails, I would probably have my funding cut. Getting the reliability from 85% to 95% DOUBLES THE PRICE. 85% is the optimal failure rate to get the most results from the smallest budget”.

So there’s some aerospace wisdom for you.

[6SJ7]

Last August Lockheed Martin, the Air Force, and DARPA tested the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2), which traveled 20 times the speed of sound and could hypothetically deliver a bomb anyplace on the planet inside one hour.

"We deliver your nuke in 60 minutes or it's free."