Currently, in the field of "military space" between the United States and Russia has been established only occasional, fragmentary cooperation, said the head of the US Air Force Space Command, General William Shelton. In a recent interview with ITAR-TASS, Shelton announced that he was not going to personally attend the international conference on missile defense, which is to be held in Moscow in early May and is organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Then the general spoke about a number of American military projects in space, without revealing, however, any special secrets.
According to Ulyam Shelton, the secret mission of the American experimental spaceplane X-37B, which has been in low-Earth orbit for more than a year, is going well, the military is extremely pleased with it. At the same time, he did not name the exact date of the return of the device to Earth. Ulya Shelton refused to disclose any information about the tasks that the spacecraft, which is a smaller version of the shuttle, solves, and also to disclose the budget of this project. There are good reasons for keeping silence as long as possible, he said. As for the budget, its disclosure could lead to the disclosure of the volume of technologies and created opportunities included in this program.
The Kh-37V was launched into orbit from the Atlas-5 launch vehicle on March 5, 2011. All information about him and his devices, as well as the cargo that is in his cargo hold, is classified. Initially, it was assumed that the spacecraft flight would last about 9 months. Launched in 2011, the X-37B is the second to be at the disposal of the US Air Force Space Command. The first spaceplane was tested in 2010. Then the device spent 225 days in space and returned safely to California. The landing and flight of the device took place completely autonomously. According to experts, the flight would be extremely successful, the only trouble awaiting the spaceplane upon landing. When touching the runway, the tire of one of the X-37B wheels flew apart, but in general the spaceplane did not receive any significant damage.
Spaceplane X-37B
The X-37B spaceplane was developed by Boeing. The device has a takeoff weight of almost 5 tons and reaches 8, 9 m in length and 2, 9 m in width. The small wingspan of the spacecraft is 4.5 m. The spacecraft is equipped with solar panels, which act as sources of electricity when it is in orbit. According to previously published information, the X-37B can be used at altitudes from 200 to 750 km and is capable of maneuvering and changing orbits. This device can deliver small loads into orbit, perform reconnaissance tasks, and also serve as a platform for testing new instruments that could later be used on spy satellites. A number of experts already now see the spaceplane in the role of a future space interceptor, which, if necessary, will be able to disable enemy satellites or deliver missile and bomb strikes while in orbit. Currently, the Pentagon denies this, stating that the device is only a platform for testing new technologies. The third test mission of the X-37B spaceplane is scheduled for autumn 2012.
According to Shelton, the Pentagon currently has neither the financial capabilities nor plans to increase the number of X-37B spaceplanes. At the same time, the chief of the space command refused to answer a journalist's question about whether the US military really has only 2 such devices.
The general also touched upon the creation of the newest American military satellite operating in the infrared range and intended for use in the missile launch warning system. According to Shelton, the full operation of this system is postponed until 2016-17. According to the general, the US Air Force is having problems creating software that allows it to receive real-time information from the satellite's second infrared sensor, as well as funding problems.
On May 7, 2011, the United States launched the Geo-1 satellite, which is the first satellite deployed under the Space-Based Infrared System (ISKB - Sbirs) program. The sbirs satellite system will include 24 satellites that will be placed in geostationary orbits, and 5 satellites called heo-1, which will be placed in highly elongated elliptical orbits. According to some information, the upper echelon of US satellites began to form already in 2006. Therefore, there is a possibility that a number of active satellites are already in an elliptical orbit.
Spaceplane X-37B
The launched geo-1 satellite, designed for geostationary orbit, is the first satellite in its echelon. The satellite will have to enter the specified orbit within 9 days, after which it will be certified for another 1.5 years for permission to use the device for military purposes. The satellite was launched into orbit using the Atlas-5 launch vehicle. Once it would have been difficult to imagine, but the first stage of a rocket with an American military satellite on board was accelerated by the Soviet liquid-propellant engine RD-180, which to this day is the best in its class and surpasses American counterparts in almost all respects. The technology for this engine was transferred to the United States in the 1990s.
In the coming years, the rest of the geo-1 satellites will be launched into orbit. An early infrared detection orbital constellation will be ready by 2016, reports sbirs commander Roger Teague. This early warning system is intended to complement the general system for detecting missile launches and other hostile activity. This system is not intended to destroy detected targets, its purpose is to transmit information to the missile defense system and fighters. In fact, sbirs is a complement to the US missile defense system.
Each of the satellites has a sophisticated scanning system consisting of two infrared instruments. One of them is scanning and can cover a significant area of the Earth, the second infrared device is narrow-beam and keeps a given area in its field of view. According to the US military, tests of the infrared system have demonstrated its very high performance, which previously simply could not be achieved. Satellites of the sbirs system will be able to significantly increase the capabilities of space reconnaissance and situational awareness of ground units on the battlefield.
Geo-1 satellite from the Sbirs system
Assumptions about the purpose of the X-37B
Today, in the absence of available information about the missions and purposes of the Kh-37B flights and the entire program as a whole, one can try to move away from the shaky specifics and highlight the general trend in the development of cruise weapons of war. To do this, it is necessary to answer the question - why is the X-37B wing and tail, consisting of 2 all-rotating planes, which give the spaceplane highly maneuverable properties in the atmosphere? To solve most of the tasks in orbit, the military today can do without a wing. The answer to this question may be the fact that for civilian specialists with their "capsules" the atmosphere is only an annoying obstacle on the way of putting the spacecraft into orbit and an equally short section during its return, while the military considers the atmosphere and outer space as a single space of military operations.
Today, mankind confidently uses the altitude ranges from 0 to 20 km and above 140 km. At the same time, the gap between these two ranges is practically not used due to the lack of technology that would allow flying at these altitudes. At the same time, for the military, this height range is a promising theater of operations. That is why the development of these heights by them occurs immediately from 2 directions: "from below", by increasing the speed and altitude of "traditional" aviation, and also "from above", by reducing the flight altitude of promising spacecraft, as well as expanding their capabilities (by the first stage - maneuverability) with immersion and / or short-term flight in the atmosphere. In the long term, the combination of these two directions should lead to the emergence of "two-medium" vehicles, which can be called aerospace aircraft (VKS), which will operate with equal efficiency both in the atmosphere and in space.
In addition, videoconferencing will be able to reasonably use the advantages of one of the two environments to perform tasks in the other. For example, they will be able to accelerate in the atmosphere on wings, using atmospheric oxygen as an oxidizer to launch satellites into orbit or go into space to more quickly achieve a set goal (interception, attack, reconnaissance) at a remote (antipodal) point on the earth's surface or at airspace above it. In the latter case, it will be the implementation in practice of the idea of hostilities proposed by the Austrian engineer Senger, who laid it in the projects of the first generation rocket gliders back in Nazi Germany.
X-51A Waverider with hypersonic ramjet engine
In the light of the above, the X-37V spaceplane can be viewed as the first concrete steps that are aimed at implementing a strategy from above, without interrupting the implementation of another strategy from below. At present, it is presented with practical steps to test an unmanned prototype of the X-51A Waverider hypersonic high-altitude bomber, the cost of which is estimated at $ 246 million.
The Pentagon tested this device on May 25, 2010, after which it was announced that after being dropped from the B-52 carrier aircraft, the X-51 demo model was able to accelerate above the surface in 6 minutes of operation of the scramjet engine - a hypersonic ramjet engine The Pacific Ocean up to a speed of 6,000 km / h. In the report of the military about the tests of the X-51, it is especially emphasized that over time, on the basis of this model, various devices can be designed: from cruise missiles and accelerators for launching cargo into orbit, to aircraft for missile and bomb strikes and reconnaissance. The future meeting of devices from two directions - "from above" and "from below" is quite close.
The appearance in the foreseeable future of atmospheric hypersonic aircraft capable of speeds of Mach 6-16 and having an altitude range of 40-60 km. Will put on the agenda methods of dealing with them. In this case, the analysis shows that it will be easier to deal with such devices from space than from the earth's surface. That is why the already launched X-37B technology demonstrator is becoming even more important. The most logical step to create a two-medium military vehicle for an end-to-end flight altitude range of 20-2000 km. will be the appearance in the foreseeable future of the X-37 version with a scramjet engine.
