Obviously, the United States does not fully understand what kind of hypersonic weapons they want, but they understand the numerous risks associated with this. That is why work is being carried out in several directions at once, taking into account, however, reasonable unification.
There are many problems. This is especially true for targeting in the final phase of the flight. A typical example of the difficulties encountered in the development of hypersonic weapons is the testing of the X-51 rocket, which ended in failures in 2011 and 2012. By the way, the US Air Force recently abandoned a more modern analogue of this missile, the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW), but continued work on another hypersonic complex, namely the Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon, or AGM-183A.
We talked about this in detail not so long ago. They also touched on the project for the Ground Forces, which received the designation Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW). This question is all the more relevant, since a lot of interesting information about LRHW has been presented recently.
Long arm of the US Army
LRHW is not entirely new. Back in May last year, the American Breaking Defense website in Army Moves Out On Lasers, Hypersonics: Lt. Gen. Thurgood”spoke about the presentation of the details of the system, which received the designation Hypersonic Weapons System. In short, we were talking about a solid-propellant ground-based ballistic missile with a universal guided maneuverable gliding hypersonic warhead Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB). It was developed by the Sandia National Laboratories of the US Department of Energy. Rockets with blocks are placed on a two-container installation, towed by an Oshkosh M983A4 (8x8) tractor.
In September, the blog of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies reported that in August 2019, the American Lockheed Martin received a contract from the US Army in the amount of $ 347 million, involving the creation of a prototype Long Range Hypersonic Weapon system. He, according to all available data, is the very Hypersonic Weapons System, presented in the spring.
The previously announced data have once again been confirmed. According to them, the ballistic missile will have a body diameter of 887 mm with a transport and launch container length of about 10 m. The launcher semi-trailer is nothing more than a new version of the M870 semi-trailer used for the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system. For fire control, the standard American missile and artillery fire control system AFATDS in version 7.0 will be used. The Long Range Hypersonic Weapon LRHW battery should include four launchers and one fire control vehicle.
Along with a $ 347 million contract for Lockheed Martin, the US Army awarded a $ 352 million contract with Dynetics Technical Solutions. It implies the production of the first serial set of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) hypersonic warhead. Recall that the C-HGB is a unified biconical glider. Behind him there is already a cycle of tests - successful, according to the Americans.
"We have selected a strong team with diverse skill sets to help the United States counter the threat posed by Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons development."
- said the president of Dynetics Technical Solutions Steve Cook.
According to the contract, twenty C-HGB units for the US Army, Navy and Missile Defense Agency should be ready by 2023.
Appearance and capabilities
The LRHW complex has a well-recognizable appearance - primarily due to the massive twin launcher. What exactly it will be, the US Army showed on materials released in February, where it was about training the military using virtual reality. The media called the installation Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL): it is similar to what we previously saw on the spring presentation materials.
The Long Range Hypersonic Weapon was shown in Washington on February 27. Except for the six-wheeled tractor instead of the previously announced eight-wheeled Oshkosh M983A4, the previously shown LRHW is well recognized in its appearance. The biggest intrigue can be called the characteristics, which are still a secret. If we try to summarize all the available data, then the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon range can reach 6,000 kilometers at a speed comparable to or even higher than that of the Boeing X-51, which, according to the project, can accelerate to more than 7,000 kilometers per hour.
The purpose of the complex is no less important. And also whether it can be compared with something that other countries have or will have. It should be noted right away that the United States is not trying to play catch-up with Russia, as some media say. It would be more correct to say that the Americans are going their own way, and direct analogies with other systems are not entirely appropriate.
Take, for example, the "Dagger", which is carried by the MiG-31K. And which is similar (at least outwardly) to a single-stage solid-propellant missile with an integral 9M723 warhead of the Iskander tactical missile system. Now let's look at the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, where the target is hit by the aforementioned C-HGB unit, which is carried by a ballistic missile. The difference is serious.
At the same time, the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon can hardly be called “strategic”. Is that conditional. Despite the theoretically high potential, this complex and its probable analogs will not replace the classic nuclear triad, which feels quite good even without them, despite the decent age of the same Ohio-class submarines. These are incomparable things: neither in terms of flight speed, nor even more so in terms of the thrown mass.
On the other hand, the new US hypersonic weapons could make the conventional arsenal of Americans even more lethal. In this sense, there is no doubt that both LRHW and AGM-183A and hypersonic weapons for the fleet can turn out to be a significant step forward - an alternative to cruise missiles, whose relatively low subsonic flight speed makes them potentially vulnerable to interception by modern air defense systems. In the distant future, given the mass production of hypersonic systems of various types and purposes, one can still expect their gradual replacement of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine ballistic missiles. But, we repeat, this is definitely not a question for the coming years.
