The race is on for hypersonic technology, a major shift in military aviation. It is far too early to call it an arms race, but it is a technology race. All of today’s hypersonic programs remain generally experimental, with most of the demonstrators falling between four and six on the DARPA scale, somewhere between component and system or subsystem validation.
Hypersonic flight is nothing new, but the speed is applied to ICBM warheads, astronaut descent vehicles, and space shuttles during the re-entry phase. However, the above examples are of a very short duration and are ‘need-driven.’ The challenge now is an aircraft that flies at hypersonic speeds in a regular mode and demonstrates its prowess and capabilities.
The SR-72 is an upcoming American aircraft expected to succeed the iconic SR-71. However, unlike its predecessor, the SR-72 will be unmanned and hypersonic. Among them are ICBM warheads, cruise missiles, and UAVs; hypersonic maneuvering guided objects are the vanguard of this technological revolution. Hypersonic aircraft are typically considered to travel at a speed of 5-10 Mach, which is from 6,150 to 12,300 km/h, and at an operational altitude between 25 and 140 km.
Probably one of the most impressive features of hypersonic vehicles is the ability to avoid air defense systems. Such vehicles virtually cannot be reliably detected inside the radar-opaque plasma cloud. This feature makes the vehicles very much undefined in their possible potential. For example, less than an hour after orbital deceleration, the hypersonic device can strike a target.
Russia has a rich history of hypersonic technology development. A part of this comprises the Tu-130, the Ajax aircraft, and lines of high-speed aircraft developed by the Mikoyan Design Bureau. The further stage of the Spiral project became the starting point for developments, which were taken as a basis with the breakthrough of an aerospace hypersonic returnable aircraft into the orbit launched by a hypersonic plane, the BOR, and the Buran space shuttle.
The latest addition to the list of developments is that Russia has started testing the hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile Zircon. The date of operationalization for the said missile is 2020. The selected carriers that shall be armed with this missile include the fifth-generation submarines and surface ships, including the flagship Peter the Great. Correspondingly, its speed would be around 5 to 6 Mach, and it would have a range of at least 400 km, thereby making the process of countermeasures highly impossible to execute. As far as the fuel source is concerned, it runs on Decilin-M fuel, which adds an extra 300 km of range to it.
This is the level that the Yu-71 super-maneuverable rocket warhead, made by NPO Mashinostroyenia, has taken hypersonic technology to. The Yu-71 can go as fast as 11,000 km/h, reach near space, and hit its target when launched. The warhead withstands the extreme velocities of up to 18,000 km/h in atmosphere re-entry.
Even China has made substantial progress in hypersonic technology. In 2015, the first successful flight test of the DF-ZF hypersonic vehicle was carried out in China, reportedly with maneuverability up to 5 Mach. According to reports, Beijing described the DF-ZF as capable of penetrating U.S. air defenses and conducting a nuclear attack on a global scale.
The United States is working on several hypersonic aircraft, such as the X-51A Waverider and the SR-72 hypersonic UAV. Operational readiness is to be aimed shortly, with SR-72’s entering service planned for 2030. The SR-72 will have a twin propulsion system that will enable this hypersonic cruise vehicle to deliver both reconnaissance and strike missions.
These races are going to be significant for the world at large in terms of military strategy if hypersonic technology prevails. These developments just mark the step in the new relations between the abilities and the radius of action of the modern military forces, entering them into the new age of aviation.