&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/pentagon-new-bomb-681/&via=1.1 8.27.241.135:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
Hypersonic weapon: New US bomb kills long before you hear it
Published: 18 November, 2011, 19:46
Edited: 19 November, 2011, 13:00
Like the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, the Pentagon's Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic plane is part of the Prompt Global Strike program (AFP Photo / Handout / Darpa)
TAGS: Arms, Military, USA, War
The US Army has tested a hypersonic missile, which travels six times faster than the speed of sound. It is part of a larger plan to have the capability to strike any place on the planet within an hour.
The missile, called the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW), was launched from Hawaii on Thursday, the Pentagon reported. A rocket delivered it to suborbital altitude, after which the glider went for its target on the Marshall Islands, some 3,700 kilometers away.
It hit less than 30 minutes later, which means its speed was at least 7,400 kilometer per hour, or about Mach 6. An aircraft must be able to fly faster than Mach 5, to qualify as hypersonic.
A Mach number is used to describe the speed of an object or a fluid in comparison to the speed of sound in that medium. Mach 1 means the object travels at the same speed as sound. However the speed of sound may vary depending on such conditions as temperature and composition, so the speed expressed in Mach number is also variable. The now-retired Concorde supersonic passenger planes used to fly at a cruising speed of about Mach 2.
The test was aimed at gathering data on "aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies," the Pentagon said.
The AHW is one of several projects of the Prompt Global Strike program. It is aimed at developing several weapons which can be launched from American territory and reach their destinations within an hour.
On August 11 the US Air Force tested another hypersonic glider called the HTV-2. It is faster than the AHW, with speeds reaching 27,000 kilometer per hour. But unlike the Army’s vehicle, it does not work well – the test was aborted due to a technical failure.
The Soviet Union developed ramjet engines capable of hypersonic locomotion and even tested one design, which successfully reached Mach 5.7. The work was stalled by the collapse of the USSR, and no weapon using this technology was ever produced.
18.11.2011, 18:35
13 comments
Nuke agency resolution ramps up pressure on IranThe IAEA has passed a resolution on Iran, drafted by a group of international mediators. This as the US reportedly wants Tehran to curtail its nuclear program until spring 2012, otherwise they will give a green light to an Israeli strike on Iran. Israel vs Iran |
18.11.2011, 20:10
2 comments
Back to Tahrir Square one: Egyptians rally againOver 50,000 Egyptians are back on Tahrir Square to demand that the military hand over power to a civilian government. |
The leader of axis of evil is China. China can be controled by economically. If the leader is not killed then there is no use killing the underlings like north korea,iran,iraq,afghanistan. Enemy to democracy and world order is China.
Bezver, China is not the only country lending the U.S. money via their T Bonds. Japan, Britain, Germany and many other countries invest in them too. There is more than meets the eye. Why does beijing say that this reserves invested in their bonds cannot be brought back to China to to help their poor. Something is not right and the public not told whay such an arrangement exist. Maybe the WTO requires every country to keep reserves in the U.S. to back up the US dollar? If so, it is not right. This has the same making of the EU lack of monetary union since via such an arrangement, the U.S. dollar attempts to be the de factor global currency which it is not, offcially.
"In God We Trust"Interesting that the United States trusts in God, but if 'God' is not trusted, then they seem to have the biblical right to enforce 'God's' will. I say SEEM because all empires of the last 200 years have had a pseudo-religious basis as their founding, if not directly, but indirectly. Australia is no exception by being conquered by the British in 1788, some say invaded others say colonized, but the fact is the British Empire directly or indirectly enforced a religious creedance on their subjugated 'servants' in Australia, and this is no more apparent than the policies that displaced tens of thousands of Aboriginal Children in the Stolen Generation.How can we oppose this new weapon and the globalized superpower of the United States? Firstly opposition has to be pacifist because if you kill in the name of peace, then? Secondly use the UN forums and structures to vent the opposition, and lastly, never say that there are limited options in opposing this superweapon.