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Pentagon seeks new weapons to counter China’s hypersonic missiles
The Missile Defense Agency has tasked a major defense contractor to develop advanced
missiles capable of knocking out maneuvering, ultrahigh-speed targets such as China’s high-tech Wu-14 hypersonic glide vehicle.
Missile defense specialists at Lockheed Martin, the main contractor for the Pentagon’s agency, told reporters Wednesday that an extended-range version of the Army’s Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system is being developed to deal with hypersonic threats.
Hypersonic missiles are maneuvering strike vehicles launched atop missiles that travel at speeds of up to Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound. They maneuver and glide along the edge of space, making them difficult targets for missile defenses.
China surprised U.S. intelligence agencies last year by conducting three flight tests of the Wu-14 in January, August and December. The vehicle traveled at speeds up to Mach 10, or nearly 8,000 miles per hour.
U.S. intelligence agencies assessed the Wu-14 to be a nuclear delivery vehicle designed to break through U.S. defenses.
In addition to China, Russia and India are working on hypersonic strike vehicles. A U.S. test of a hypersonic missile blew up shortly after launch in August. U.S. officials are concerned that hypersonic technology will proliferate to the missile systems of North Korea and Iran, the main focus of current U.S. missile defenses.
“One of the things that the MDA is looking very closely at is the upgrade of the THAAD system so that we can extend the reach in dealing with a target just like that,” said Mike Trotsky, a vice president at Lockheed for defense missiles and fire control.
Hypersonic warheads seek to “find a seam” between space-capable interceptors and air-breathing defenses to avoid being shot down, he told reporters on a conference call. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense interceptors can blast missile warheads into space and into the upper atmosphere “in the region where that threat flies,” Mr. Trotsky said.
The extended-range version, with a larger booster and an enhanced upper stage, is being developed to deal with hypersonic threats, he added, noting that work has been underway for the past 12 to 18 months.
“And so the MDA is very interested in [Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense] ER and that’s one of the key reasons,” Mr. Trotsky said.
Doug Graham, Lockheed’s vice president for strategic and missile defense systems, said hypersonic glide vehicles travel at the top of the atmosphere, the system’s optimum target zone.
“So, in a sense, you can’t fly around THAAD’s battle space,” he said, “which is why there is intense interest in building an enhanced version of the system,” currently deployed on the U.S. island of Guam.
J.D. Hammond, Lockheed’s director of command and control battle management systems, said software is being developed to tie together space-based and ground-based sensor data, both infrared and radio frequency, “so that we have better sensor data on that type of threat.”
“That is something that is being worked on in coordination with MDA,” he said.
Mr. Graham said maneuvering hypersonic glide vehicle threats, along with continued ballistic missile flight tests by North Korea and Iran, indicate that adversaries are seeking for ways to defeat missile defense systems.
“So we’re constantly having to stay ahead of the curve so that our systems remain robust against the full range of threats,” he said.
Inside the Ring: Pentagon to counter hypersonic missiles - Washington Times
The Missile Defense Agency has tasked a major defense contractor to develop advanced
missiles capable of knocking out maneuvering, ultrahigh-speed targets such as China’s high-tech Wu-14 hypersonic glide vehicle.Missile defense specialists at Lockheed Martin, the main contractor for the Pentagon’s agency, told reporters Wednesday that an extended-range version of the Army’s Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system
is being developed to deal with hypersonic threats.Hypersonic missiles are maneuvering strike vehicles launched atop missiles that travel at speeds of up to Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound. They maneuver and glide along the edge of space, making them difficult targets for missile defenses.
China surprised U.S. intelligence
agencies last year by conducting three flight tests of the Wu-14 in January, August and December. The vehicle traveled at speeds up to Mach 10, or nearly 8,000 miles per hour.U.S. intelligence agencies assessed the Wu-14 to be a nuclear delivery vehicle designed to break through U.S. defenses.
In addition to China, Russia and India are working
on hypersonic strike vehicles. A U.S. test of a hypersonic missile blew up shortly after launch in August. U.S. officials are concerned that hypersonic technology will proliferate to the missile systems of North Korea and Iran, the main focus of current U.S. missile defenses.“One of the things that the MDA is looking very closely at is the upgrade of the THAAD system so that we can extend the reach in dealing with a target just like that,” said Mike Trotsky, a vice president at Lockheed for defense missiles and fire control.
Hypersonic warheads seek to “find a seam” between space-capable interceptors and air-breathing defenses to avoid being shot down, he told reporters on a conference call. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense interceptors can blast missile warheads into space and into the upper atmosphere “in the region where that threat flies,” Mr. Trotsky said.
The extended-range version, with a larger booster and an enhanced
upper stage, is being developed to deal with hypersonic threats, he added, noting that work has been underway for the past 12 to 18 months.“And so the MDA is very interested in [Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense] ER and that’s one of the key reasons,” Mr. Trotsky said.
Doug Graham, Lockheed’s vice president for strategic and missile defense systems
, said hypersonic glide vehicles travel at the top of the atmosphere, the system’s optimum target zone.“So, in a sense, you can’t fly around THAAD’s battle space,” he said, “which is why there is intense interest in building an enhanced version of the system,” currently deployed on the U.S. island of Guam.
J.D. Hammond, Lockheed’s director of command and control battle management systems, said software is being developed to tie together space-based and ground-based sensor data
, both infrared and radio frequency, “so that we have better sensor data on that type of threat.”“That is something that is being worked on in coordination with MDA,” he said.
Mr. Graham said maneuvering hypersonic glide vehicle threats, along with continued ballistic missile flight tests by North Korea and Iran, indicate that adversaries are seeking for ways to defeat missile defense systems.
“So we’re constantly having to stay ahead of the curve so that our systems remain robust against the full range of threats,” he said.
Inside the Ring: Pentagon to counter hypersonic missiles - Washington Times
. The US always has a counter and HGV's are nothing special, just a more modernized MARV, which we have plenty of experience with via our Pershing II and own HGV testing. As with every system there is an initial fear and once that gets out of everyone's systems we develop our countermeasures.
