Hypersonic Test Vehicle Falcon goes missing on test flight, DARPA admits

Praxius

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Hypersonic Test Vehicle Falcon goes missing on test flight, DARPA admits | News.com.au

THE US has admitted its top-secret military prototype "Falcon" glider went missing on its test flight last week.

US military scientists lost contact with the unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) nine minutes into its inaugural test flight, AFP reported.

The HTV-2 was launched last week aboard a Minotaur IV rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The HTV-2 is designed to fly through the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to Mach 20, providing the US military with a possible platform for striking targets anywhere on the planet with conventional weapons.

The test flight called for a 30-minute mission in which the vehicle would glide at high speed before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, north of a US military test site at the Kwajalein Atoll.



The glider separated from the booster but soon after the signal vanished, a spokeswoman said.

"Preliminary review of data indicates the HTV-2 achieved controlled flight within the atmosphere at over Mach 20. Then contact with HTV-2 was lost," Johanna Spangenberg Jones, a spokeswoman for DARPA, said.

"This was our first flight (all others were done in wind tunnels and simulations) so although of course we would like to have everything go perfectly, we still gathered data and can use findings for the next flight, scheduled currently for early 2011," she said.

The test flight was supposed to cover a total of 4100 nautical miles (7600km) from lift-off and scientists had hoped to conduct some limited maneuovres, with the HTV-2 banking and eventually diving for its splash down.

US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin builds the hypersonic glider, which the military calls "revolutionary".

The hypersonic program appears to fit in with US plans to develop a way of hitting distant targets with conventional weapons within an hour, dubbed "prompt global strike".

According to a Pentagon fact sheet for the vehicle, "the US military seeks the capability to respond, with little or no advanced warning, to threats to our national security anywhere around the globe".

A hypersonic plane could substitute for a ballistic missile armed with a conventional warhead, as other countries might suspect the missile represented a nuclear attack.

"Aside from its speed, another advantage is that it would not be mistaken by Russia or China for a nuclear launch," said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute who has done consultant work for Lockheed Martin.

The US Air Force has also looked at hypersonic vehicles for intelligence-gathering if spy satellites in low orbit were attacked, he said.

Well whoops... they never said they found it either.

Well besides the obvious joke of it perhaps going to warp and off to Klingon space, is anybody else bothered by the concept of the US having such a weapon that can launch and attack pretty much anywhere on the planet in about an hour?

By the way, here's what it looks like:

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/PUB_HTV_Progression_DARPA_2008_lg.jpg
 

Icarus27k

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Sure, the fact that this thing is weaponized is disturbing. What the hell are they thinking?

But still, it's a glider that travels at Mach 20. That's pretty cool. Something that shouldn't go really fast going really fast. Like Carol Channing being propelled to the speed of sound.
 
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TenPenny

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Well besides the obvious joke of it perhaps going to warp and off to Klingon space, is anybody else bothered by the concept of the US having such a weapon that can launch and attack pretty much anywhere on the planet in about an hour?

Sure, it can land anywhere...but who knows where? If they could control it, that would be something!
 

Praxius

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Sure, it can land anywhere...but who knows where? If they could control it, that would be something!

Indeed... instead in their first flight, they lost it.... Now I bet the Mexicans have it and will now become the next world leader :lol:

But seriously, while this could be considered quite a threat to anybody on the other end of the stick, I'm sure a pile of new counter measures will come about from all sorts of countries and specialist..... but in the meantime, if it ever became practical for military use, I can't see too many people sitting easy with the US having such a weapon.

And not just the US... any country who had such a weapon is a tad unsettling.... no wonder why they decided to have their little PR campaign to scrap some nuclear weapons.... they won't need as many with such a device.
 

MHz

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So if they need an ICBM type of launch it get it to mach 20 first why not just put steerable conventional munitions on one of rockets and scrap the whole 'glider' thing?
 

Praxius

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So if they need an ICBM type of launch it get it to mach 20 first why not just put steerable conventional munitions on one of rockets and scrap the whole 'glider' thing?

That'd just be too easy, lol.... but also I guess these things are a smaller target and probably once they get it working right, it'd be more maneuverable compared to a long rocket.

Also, since it's a glider and has no propulsion of it's own, there's no real heat signature to track.
 

MHz

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Going Mach 20 through the atmosphere will create heat all by itself, like red hot iron temperatures and there is that little problem of hiding the rocket launch, let alone 30 if it is a large strike.
Catching it might be a tad difficult.

If it is shuttle like in appearance it is a modified clone of the Avro.
 

eh1eh

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So the US can annihilate all life on the planet faster. Not really news except the faster thingy. I say hurry up and stop being wuusies. Kill us all now. That is the only use for such a weapon. They can already carpet bomb the population of Earth into submition. Not to mention nuke most of the globe in short order. Doing it at mach 20 seems redundant.
 

AnnaG

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Going Mach 20 through the atmosphere will create heat all by itself, like red hot iron temperatures and there is that little problem of hiding the rocket launch, let alone 30 if it is a large strike.
Catching it might be a tad difficult.

If it is shuttle like in appearance it is a modified clone of the Avro.
It said the Upper reaches of the atmosphere. Air friction will be low and 15,000 miles per hour is a lot less than meteorites landing at an average of 25 miles per second. The shuttles survive and they're doing about 18,000 MPH at atmosphere entry. There's no problem with heat.
It looks like the Avro like a Fokker Triplane looks like a dirigible.
 

MHz

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Low would still be enough to be picked up by somebody and that would eliminate the 'where did that explosion come from' question.
 

AnnaG

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Low would still be enough to be picked up by somebody and that would eliminate the 'where did that explosion come from' question.
After a couple decades of stealth stuff you think it'd be easy to detect it? lol As it is a F-22 has an electronic print like a biological bird. It'd be invisible to the naked eye because of the skin and its altitude (average of 125,000 feet). Good luck with detection.
 

MHz

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After a couple decades of stealth stuff you think it'd be easy to detect it? lol As it is a F-22 has an electronic print like a biological bird. It'd be invisible to the naked eye because of the skin and its altitude (average of 125,000 feet). Good luck with detection.
IR is somewhat different from bat radar plus how do you hide the rocket signature that can be picked up from space by several Nations. At Mach 20 who needs stealth, as it is at that altitude and that speed it seems to be easy pickings from either below or from above (Twilight Zone intro) lol Evasive maneuvers are somewhat limited in air when going that fast. Even with current missiles that only do Mach 5 add a little Kentucky windage an one dead bird is the result
 
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AnnaG

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IR is somewhat different from bat radar.
Yeah, people tracking rockets doing mach 5 never lose them. lmao
Good luck, Pilgrim. A few seconds and it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of your range.
Besides that, it'd be like trying to hit a needle with a needle at a pretty tall altitude. Good luck. http://www.g2mil.com/interceptor.htm
 
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MHz

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Yeah, people tracking rockets never lose them. lmao
From 520 miles up satellites use IR radar to see storms that cover thousands and thousands of square km moving at maybe a couple hundred km per hour and you expect to spot a speck doing mach 20? Even at 1/20th the altitude? lmao Good luck, Pilgrim. A few seconds later and it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of your range.
I sort of meant Military IR detection from the ground, preferably from 3 sensors several miles apart that is 'attached' to a targeting computer that is connected to a 'trigger'. Because of it's altitude that is very high it's travel as viewed from the ground would be something that crosses the sky at a rate not much faster that sky-lab of a fast jet a a lower altitude. Even a ICBM is an easy target because it comes from such a high altitude very little movement of the 'barrel' is needed. Trigger action is down to a nanosecond.
 

AnnaG

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"This remarkable feat has been described as "hitting a bullet with a bullet". In reality, a bullet travels only about Mach 2, so this (mach 5) is twice as difficult. In addition, each interceptor missile is a multi-stage rocket that cost millions of dollars."
Interceptor

It'd simply be a lot cheaper to not piss off the USA. Not like they can't trounce most countries as it is. And tell me which terrorist group can afford to spend hundreds of millions on intercepting rockets.
Add a couple heat flares for the falcon to toss out and your multimillion dollar rocket goes heading for a goose egg to blow up.
 
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MHz

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The Mach 5 ones are quite inexpensive and if the US is so good how did 911 even have a chance to happen? The US has to do business this way because the money is supposed to stay in the US. Take the defense budget and give it to the people they want to do business with and there would be no need to keep a military the size of the one the US has. That might put a lot of people on food stamps but at least it would be enough for food and shelter and even enough for leisure activities. Even in the good times past the 'workers' were a long way from being as well off as they could have been. Isn't that the American dream. their forefathers busted their nuts so their grand-kids could sit back and relax, as it is the company town is making a comeback and the lifestyle that went along with it. The owners will be living even higher on the hog.
 

AnnaG

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The Mach 5 ones are quite inexpensive
*shrugs* Go right ahead and build your superfantastic inexpensive interceptors then. I still say getting a rocket to hit the thing doing 15,000 MPH is bloody near impossible even without it carrying flares.
and if the US is so good how did 911 even have a chance to happen? The US has to do business this way because the money is supposed to stay in the US. Take the defense budget and give it to the people they want to do business with and there woul
Irrelevant.