Posted in Beijing 2023-12-05 15:55
After a series of problems and schedule delays, the U.S. Army is revising its long-range hypersonic test methodology, according to Defensescoop on December 3. The head of procurement for the branch hopes that the missiles will be operational next summer.
Multiple flight tests of the Black Hawk program have been cancelled, the most recent of which was scheduled for Oct. 26. Now, we are working on a new route.
The U.S. Army and Navy have been collaborating on the development of hypersonic related technologies. Doug Bush, Army's assistant secretary for procurement, logistics and technology, said, "This is really a joint project. So I, Mr. Stephani, two three-star companies and Lockheed are trying, you know, to find out what exactly is going on, and then at the same time come up with a new test schedule. ”
Doug Bush said: "It's going to be going to be a couple of parallel things. Fundamentally, it's testing the launcher, and frankly, that's the problem. And then there's the missiles themselves, you know, and gliding bodies and so on. So I think what we want to do is come up with a way to ......You don't have to do everything in a step function. We can do some more aggressive missile tests at the same time to gain confidence in the missile, and at the same time do some additional tests that we would normally do to find out exactly what is happening with the launcher itself. And then, when we are confident in the launcher and the missile, we will reschedule an operational test, you know, in which all the real equipment is. That's the last few tests we tried to do, but it didn't work out. ”
Hypersonic ** flies at a speed of more than Mach 5, is highly maneuverable and overwhelms enemy air defense systems, and is a top priority for US procurement. The multibillion-dollar Black Hawk program is a key element of the Army's long-range firepower modernization portfolio.
U.S. rivals China and Russia are also pursuing hypersonic technology, and the Pentagon is struggling to keep pace.
Bush noted that the Black Hawk program has a lot of concurrency built into it because the Army tries to move quickly. Our initial goal was to deploy the system by the end of fiscal year 2023.
At the same time, the army is working on an independent long-range firepower modernization called the Precision Strike Missile (PRSM) program. For the second increment of the PRSM, the goal of the service is to equip the system with a multi-mode seeker, which will allow this ** to attack ships at sea.