America's New Global Strike Weapon

[Shehz]

X-51 May be used as either, an ICBM or as a hyper sonic cruise missile!

Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America's New Global Strike Weapon
The mission: Attack anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

Complete Article, too long to post here (explains specs, tech, to war scenarios): http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4203874.html

 

[Neo]

Damn...looks very impressive!
So whats the range of this missile? I guess it enters space to gain hypersonic speed.

 

[Shehz]

Your answer lies here http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4203874.html

I basicly started this thread for others to have fun, but if you click on the diagram, it'll resize, and I just noticed that it can have multiple warheads.

Test Videos: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid348520180

How the X-51 Works:
While Trident II missiles with conventional warheads could be deployed in a few years, it may take a decade or more to develop the X-51 WaveRider. The WaveRider destroys targets by simply crashing into them at hypersonic speeds. But the technology in this remarkable missile may have wider applications, including ultrafast planes and new space vehicles. Designed by Boeing and Pratt & Whitney for the Air Force Research Laboratory, the X-51 uses just one moving part — the fuel pump — to hit Mach 5, or 3600 mph.
Rocket booster The X-51 is carried to 45,000 ft. by a B-52 bomber or a fighter jet, then released. A rear-mounted Army Tactical Missile Systems rocket kicks in to propel the 1600-pound missile to Mach 4.5 and 100,000 ft. The rocket then drops away and the X-51's engine takes over.
Internal inlet The missile's sharp nose funnels shock waves produced at hypersonic speeds into a rectangular opening on the craft's belly. The shock waves compress the air, eliminating mechanical parts that normally do this.
Isolator This component adjusts airflow — which can reach 2500 pounds per square foot — to a stable pressure for the combustor. Slowing airflow increases drag on the vehicle, but allows for more complete combustion.
Combustor Thrust is created when the compressed air mixes with a mist of JP-7 jet fuel and is ignited. Because hypersonic speeds generate sustained temperatures of up to 4500 degrees, the propellant also acts as a coolant — and prevents the X-51’s engine walls from melting.
Airflow PM consulted NASA to estimate the fluid dynamics for external airflow around the nose, engine, stabilizers and tail of an X-51 traveling at Mach 5. The rear contour illustrates the engine exhaust plume shape.

With Russia testing their new ICBM, this is the beginning of another Cold War.
That also means, Pakistan is back in the negotiating seat!

 

[overseer]

Read that issue of Popular Mechanics a few months back and it is indeed very impressive. But I don't think Russian is not far behind on that tech.

What really bothers me is the current US global posturing.


Global Strike

"On January 10, 2003, the new Unified Command Plan (Change 2) assigned a new mission to STRATCOM: Global Strike. The Unified Command Plan defined the new mission as:

"providing integrated global strike planning and command and control support to deliver rapid, extended range, precision kinetic (nuclear and conventional) and non-kinetic (elements of space and information operations) effects in support of theater and national objectives."

STRATCOM (and before it Strategic Air Command and the Navy) has provided global strike capabilities for decades under the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), but the SIOP name was formally dropped in 2003 and replaced with Operations Plan (OPLAN) 8044. The name change reflected an effort to transform the top-heavy SIOP into a family of smaller flexible strike plans to better reflect the demise of the Soviet Union, a new emphasis on China, and planning against weapons of mass destruction proliferators.

Global Strike is different than OPLAN 8044. It is focused on small prompt and preemptive strikes against weapons of mass destruction targets anywhere on (and below) the surface of the Earth. The military operationalization of the Global Strike mission is Contingency Plan (CONPLAN 8022), which became operational in the fall of 2004."


http://www.nukestrat.com/us/stratcom/gs.htm

 

[Shehz]

Now I get it!

US began this project in 2003, and then going for Defence Shield program?
Ofcourse the Russians won't just sit with their arms folded, this is the second phase of The Cold War.

 

[ChineseBoy]

Now I get it!

US began this project in 2003, and then going for Defence Shield program?
Ofcourse the Russians won't just sit with their arms folded, this is the second phase of The Cold War.

In fact no only Russia,but also China.