Posted on 07/17/2019 9:50:59 PM PDT by bitt
"Hypersonics is like stealth. It is a disruptive technology and will enable various platforms to operate at two to three times the speed of the Blackbird,” Carvalho told Aviation Week. “Operational survivability and lethality is the ultimate deterrent. Security classification guidance will only allow us to say the speed is greater than Mach 5.”
The successor to Lockheed Martin’s SR-71 Blackbird, the Mach 3 long-range recon aircraft that once tore across the skies like a Cold-War era arrowhead before its retirement in 1999, may be inching closer toward reality.
According to Aviation Week, a handful of visitors to the SAE International Aerotech Congress and Exhibition at Fort Worth, Texas, this week reported catching glimpses of a “demonstrator vehicle” believed to be linked to the proposed replacement: the SR-72.
(This first appeared in Task and Purpose back in 2017 and is being republished due to reader interest.)
Though the SR-72’s development is (understandably) a tightly-kept secret, Aviation Week reports that: In the early hours of July, an “unmanned subscale aircraft” was seen flying into the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, where Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works division is headquartered.
With an “optionally piloted” flight research vehicle test slated for 2018 by Lockheed back in June, and a test flight anticipated to occur by 2020, the presence of the demonstrator at Palmdale seems to indicate that the SR-72’s progress is in line with Lockheed Martin’s timeline.
“Although I can’t go into specifics, let us just say the Skunk Works team in Palmdale, California, is doubling down on our commitment to speed,” Orlando Carvalho, the executive vice president of aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, said at the exhibition, which ran from Sept. 26 to 28. “Simply put, I believe the United States is on the verge of a hypersonics revolution.”
Lockheed Martin has remained tight-lipped on the SR-72 program since announcing the Blackbird successor in 2013, but the aerospace giant wants to up the ante in terms of speed. And that’s saying something: the Blackbird as it's known is not only faster than any other jet-propelled aircraft — it can literally outrun missiles.
“Speed matters, especially when it comes to national security,” as Carvalho put it.
If the recent sightings in Palmdale are tied to the Blackbird’s replacement, then the aircraft really is fast — and not just on the flight line. While still under development at Skunk Works, the proposed reconnaissance plane is expected to hit Mach 6 thanks to advanced new hypersonic tech.
“Hypersonics is like stealth. It is a disruptive technology and will enable various platforms to operate at two to three times the speed of the Blackbird,” Carvalho told Aviation Week. “Operational survivability and lethality is the ultimate deterrent. Security classification guidance will only allow us to say the speed is greater than Mach 5.”
The proposed hypersonic aircraft could fill a space left by the SR-71, which was retired in 1999 due to the proliferation of spy satellites, enemy air defenses, and ultimately, its exorbitant costs — roughly $200,000 per hour of operation, reports the National Interest. Unlike its predecessor, the SR-72 is being designed with strike capability in mind — which means it’s not just a super speedy spy plane: It can reach out and touchobliterate a target, then zip back the way it came.
Carvalho’s comments, while not explicitly linked to the SR-72, mirrored sentiments expressed by Rob Weiss, executive vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs organization, during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics forum in Denver, Colorado in June.
“We’ve been saying hypersonics is two years away for the last 20 years,” said Weiss. “But all I can say is the technology is mature and we, along with DARPA and the services, are working hard to get that capability into the hands of our warfighters as soon as possible.”
Also dump the Department of Energy.
Gotta admit I don’t know that one.
Back then I suppose we were hungry to find out true capabilities and if there were any weakness to exploit.
Cool link, looks like all the flotsam and jetsam from previous missions as well saw some rocket bodies etc
Only if someone cares enough to park one in geostationary orbit over your head. Otherwise no - even our government couldn’t keep Iraq or Afghanistan under constant observation with existing orbital resources, and we had a war on there.
Or alternately, put everything under overhead cover or underground and continue on.
Hacking only works if your hardware is networked or the hacker has physical access to each individual device. Nobody is going to be hacking the computerized M68 sights on rifles, for example. Or pretty much anything except the Blue Force Tracker on an Abrams tank, which is heavily computerized.
GPS based tech is simple and far more accurate than all but the most laborious hand calculations, which can take hours to figure out where you are. It works better for modern moving vehicles and better yet munitions. Have fun taking a star sight when you’re in terrain following mode in a supersonic bomber, for example.
I believe it did become SOP.
I think I read they used a “start cart” with these engines (don’t remember it being two of them, just one).
But this is all from my own recollection of things I read a long time ago.
Yes, 22,300 miles out is a loooooong way to be counting on cameras for ground detail.
We do have staring sensors out there. Shoot, I think there were even cameras (at least at one time).
But no way for ground detail. Ya need real-time close-up reconnaissance. Eventually it will be drone vs. drone.
The experimental ABL project was mounted in a 747. Its range through atmosphere against something like a solid fuel rocket was maybe 300km and even that was iffy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1
The important parts: “The ABL did not burn through or disintegrate its target. It heated the missile skin, weakening it, causing failure from high speed flight stress.”
“The ABL was designed for use against tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs). These have a shorter range and fly more slowly than ICBMs. The MDA has recently suggested the ABL might be used against ICBMs during their boost phase.”
This means that these missiles would be attacked during their slowest flight phases. If using something like the ABL, it wouldn’t be terribly useful against AAMs if employed from orbit.
Gonna have to add a couple more Doppler “range gates” at the high end of the scale on the ‘ole Doppler Bistatic RADAR receiver ...
The original recon sats used actual film canisters that were ejected from the sat to re-enter. Needless to say we lost a lot of film - either to the re-entry itself or when the canister went off course and went god knows where.
Modern *commercial* satellites can’t quite read license plates from orbit but any object 10 inches or larger can be seen by them at current, FYI. One reason more than a few states (as in nations) don’t orbit their own reconnaissance satellites is because they can simply go rent time on commercial sats as needed at current and get better resolution than even top flight US military sats could provide 20 years ago.
re: “I’ve often wondered why so much of our navigation technology is GPS satellite based”
VOR, TACAN still work. There a few ADF/OMNI LW beacons left (one can also use an ADF receiver on an AM BC station too), and IN (Inertial Nav) has improved markedly (although not seen in many civilian applications) using solid state devices versus spinning mechanical gyros.
[is because they can simply go rent time on commercial sats as needed at current and get better resolution than even top flight US military sats could provide 20 years ago]
yep
Russia had hypersonic missiles long before Putin rose to power; they even sell them on the world arms market, so it’s not ‘a claim.’
Keep in mind that Russia has enormous titanium resources that the US does not have. Our first SR-71 was built with titanium covertly bought from Soviet sources, actually.
yep, looks like V-8’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjdyQpEUYzI
(still pics with other audio overlaid)
That’s completely science fiction, alas. Something with a wing shape like that? Go look at how much space the SR-71 needed to launch - and then look at videos of the giant heat wake scorching the runway on launch. Even if you could catapault it off the deck, it’s going to set the carrier on fire.
Also look at the SIZE of the thing. You might fit one, maybe TWO SR-71 size craft in a Nimitz carrier, but nothing else and you’d have to make half the deck the elevator for it or deck park it.
This one shows a start up on the starboard engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INEUCT1Z6gA
Ya can see the green TEB glow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane#Applications
Mixed with 10–15% triethylaluminium, it was used before lift-off to ignite the F-1 engines on the Saturn V rocket.
Ooh, an F-1. Now that gets me excited...
Especially clustered on a Saturn V.
Thanks for the info
That’s not a plane, that’s an air - knife!
Mach 5? Guestimating for air temp and altitude, that would be 700 mph about. Thats 5 x 700 mph or 3500 mph!
We have to look a renaming these machines. They are beyond “planes.”
I would guess that much of the increased acceleration is due to the fact that as the launch progresses, the mass being accelerated is continuously being decelerated.
Once the missile has passed 18000’, it’s above about half of the atmosphere; at 36000’ the density of the air is roughly one-quarter of that at sea level.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.