Next Test Set for EADS/LFK's Hypersonic Missile Technology
Bothered by those pesky moving targets? You can't slow them down
but you can reduce the time between launch and impact with EADS/LFK's
hypersonic missile technology. A second flight demonstration set
for August is expected to beat the Mach 6.5 mark established in
the first test, in February 2002. Equivalent to 5,000 mph at sea
level, that flight set a speed record for low-altitude missiles,
according to EADS.
The second flight will test an alternative control fin design.
The first demonstrator missile used the Russian-originated lattice
tail design, first seen on the SS-20 Saber ballistic missile and
used on the Vympel R-77. The August test will use newly designed
planar fins. It will also be a second run for the high-performance
Bayern-Chemie solid rocket motor.
LFK engineers will be looking at the missile's high-temperature
composite structure and thermodynamic design-by the time the missile
reaches the end of its flight, temperatures on the body reach
4,350 F. Combined with kinetic energy, that will usually make
the moving target stop moving, except for some outward expansion,
even without a warhead.
The tests set the stage for a German/Swedish Hypersonic Technology
Joint Program involving EADS/LFK, BGT, Bayern-Chemie and Saab
Bofors Dynamics. The three-year program is due to start in 2004.
The partners hope to apply hypersonic rocket technology to air-defense
weapons-for use against both aircraft and missiles-and to hypervelocity
weapons for use against surface targets. The German and Swedish
governments are currently working on a technical agreement covering
the joint program.
