Hypersonic missile test fails

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- U.S. military scientists lost contact with a supersonic glider 9 minutes into its maiden test flight last week, dealing a set back a Pentagon plan intended to hit terrorist targets halfway around the planet.

Designed to punch through the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere and travel at a speed of more than 25,000 miles an hour, the unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 was being tested as a platform for striking at great distances with conventional weapons. The HTV-2 was launched April 22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The test called for a 30-minute mission during which the HTV-2 would fly at high speeds before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing into the Pacific Ocean near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

But as the glider rocketed off and separated from the booster its signal disappeared.

"Preliminary review of technical data indicates the Minotaur Lite launch system successfully delivered the Falcon HTV-2 glide vehicle to the desired separation conditions," a news release from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency states.

"The launch vehicle executed first of its kind energy management maneuvers, clamshell payload fairing release and HTV-2 deployment. Approximately 9 minutes into the mission, telemetry assets experienced a loss of signal from the HTV-2."

Experts are trying to figure out what went wrong but the statement said the mission wasn't a total loss.

"This flight represents many historic firsts for both the launch system and the HTV-2 vehicle. ... Technical data collected during the flight will provide insight into the hypersonic flight characteristics of the HTV-2," DARPA said.

The glider, thin and wedge-shaped for better lift, includes "carbon-carbon aeroshell technology" to withstand the stresses of hypersonic flight. It is built U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. The U.S. military has billed the vehicle, which can fly 4,700 miles from the launch point, as "revolutionary."

The vehicle could feature in U.S. plans to develop a way of hitting distant targets with the use of conventional weapons.

A Pentagon fact sheet for the HTV-2 states, "The U.S. military seeks the capability to respond, with little or no advanced warning, to threats to our national security anywhere around the globe."

The craft's shape and size provides additional benefits.

"There's always a concern that a conventional warhead on an (intercontinental ballistic missile) might be confused with a nuclear device -- what can you do to prove otherwise?" Mark Lewis, the former chief scientist of the Air Force, told the Danger Room Web site. "With a high-lift vehicle, your trajectory would be so different that no one would likely confuse it with something more sinister."

The U.S. Air Force is said to also be considering such hypersonic vehicles for intelligence-gathering if spy satellites in low orbit come under attack.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/04/29/Hypersonic-missile-test-fails/UPI-93111272552227/.