DOD flies experimental hypersonic payload; claims success,

technological advances

November 02, 2017 |

Jason Sherman Inside Defense

The Pentagon successfully demonstrated a hypersonic glide vehicle Oct. 30, lofting an
experimental payload on a rocket from Hawaii that -- during its ultra-fast, unpowered
flight more than 2,000 nautical miles to the Marshall Islands across the upper reaches
of the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean -- verified technological advances relevant to a
potential future U.S. military hypersonic strike system.

The event -- dubbed Flight Experiment-1 -- was a high-stakes assessment three years in
the making by the Defense Department's Conventional Prompt Strike program and
comes six years after the last successful U.S. military flight demonstration of a
hypersonic boost-glide vehicle.

Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, head of the Navy's Strategic System Programs office, which
executed the test, declared the event a “success” during remarks at a Nov. 2 Navy
Submarine League Conference in Arlington, VA.

The result advances U.S. military efforts in the race against China and Russia to develop
a long-range, ultra-fast missile -- a capability that, if eventually fielded, could give the
president the option to strike a powerful, non-nuclear blow precisely to a target
anywhere in the world within an hour.

Dyke Weatherington, principal director of space, strategic and intelligence systems in

the Pentagon's acquisition directorate, which oversees the Conventional Prompt Strike
program, said the flight test demonstrated technological headway.

“What I can tell you at this [unclassified] level is we matured a number of the
technologies that have relevance in associating capabilities in what a warfighter might
need in a future operational capability,” Weatherington told Inside Defense.

“We are assessing the results of the test,” he said during a Nov. 2 interview at the
Pentagon. “Generally, I will say, we were mostly satisfied with the results.” He declined
to say how fast the glider traveled or anything about its trajectory, but noted the payload
took less than 30 minutes to reach its target.

“The specific flight objectives are classified, and the department is assessing the data to
discern if we met those flight objectives,” Weatherington said.

Last year, however, the Office of the Secretary of Defense told lawmakers the objectives
for FE-1 included a first-ever live warhead integration with hypersonic glider,
demonstrating flight control software improvements, higher G-loads while
maneuvering, advanced avionics, miniaturization of subsystems and improved guidance
algorithms.

Did the Defense Department integrate a warhead on the hypersonic glider in FE-1?

“I have no comment,” Weatherington said.

The new glide vehicle was a scaled down version of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon
which successfully flew the same route in 2011 in the U.S. military's only successful
boost-glide hypersonic flight test to date.

Because of their speed -- hypersonic weapons travel at least five times the speed of
sound -- their maneuverability and altitude, these ultra-fast systems promise military
utility that includes the ability to penetrate even the most sophisticated air defense
systems.

The Navy's Strategic Systems Programs office led a national team that included other
federal agencies, military services, industry, government-affiliated laboratories,
federally funded research and development centers and university-affiliated research
centers to execute FE-1.

The Pentagon previously estimated the cost of FE-1 to be $160 million. “These tests are
very expensive,” Weatherington said. He declined to say the exact price, but noted the
earlier estimate was in the ballpark.

The flight began at the Sandia National Laboratories flight test pad at Pacific Missile
Range Facility on Kauai. A Strategic Target System launch vehicle, similar to the system
the Army began developing with Sandia National Laboratories in 1985 using refurbished
Navy Polaris missile motors for its first and second stages and a commercial Orbus-1a
solid rocket motor guidance and control for its third stage, was the booster for the flight
test. The experimental payload sat atop in a nose cone, giving the entire ensemble a
length of more than 30 feet, diameter of 54 inches and weight of 36,000 pounds.
The hypersonic boost-glide vehicle was manufactured with participation from “several
different elements” of the Conventional Prompt Strike national team, Weatherington
said.

The glide vehicle has an internal structure which is overlaid with a thermal protection
system; the design of the latter is a team activity, according to Weatherington.

Hypersonic glide vehicles of the variety DOD is exploring travel in the atmosphere for
tens of minutes, Weatherington said. “That's a long time to heat-soak a vehicle
compared to a typical ballistic re-entry vehicle, which, from the time it reenters the
atmosphere and hits the ground, is 20 to 30 seconds,” Weatherington said. “The
thermal protection system has to be much more complex. Assessing the performance of
that thermal protection system is one of the sensitive areas of this program.”

The Pentagon, with prodding from Congress, has adopted a goal to codify a
Conventional Prompt Strike acquisition program of record by 2020.

The Conventional Prompt Strike program has spent $1.2 billion to date and plans to
spend $1 billion over the next five years, including $201 million in fiscal year 2018.

The program focuses on demonstrating component and subsystem technology maturity

with risk-reduction initiatives that culminate with flight tests. The program funds the
design, development, and experimentation of boosters, payload delivery vehicles, non-
nuclear warheads, thermal protection systems, guidance systems, test range
modernization and mission planning and enabling capabilities, according to the
Pentagon's budget.

The Conventional Prompt Strike program has two follow-on tests planned, one in 2020
and another in about 2022, Weatherington said. “We will use data collected from this
flight test to refine our models and to refine what potential [concept of operations] could
be for a future operational system. Then we will continue to burn down the technology
risk, we'll continue to mature the technologies for capabilities the warfighter might need
and it is likely we will demonstrate some of those -- not all of those -- in the next flight
test.”

While plans are being drafted for a third flight test in 2022, Weatherington said those
are soft. “It is difficult for me to make a prediction four years from now in a technology
area -- and a threat area -- frankly that is moving this fast,” he said.
Since 2003, the Defense Department has explored a range of options for giving
commanders new ways to strike high-value, time-sensitive targets -- from terrorists to
weapons of mass destruction to anti-satellite weapons -- anywhere on the planet in
about an hour.

In 2008, Congress quashed a Navy proposal to fund the modification of submarine-

launched Trident missiles to carry conventional weapons and perform the prompt strike
mission over concern that such systems, when employed, could be misconstrued for
nuclear launches. Air Force plans to develop a boost-glide hypersonic weapon stalled
out after the Hypersonic Test Vehicle-2 project, pursued with the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, resulted in test flights in 2010 and 2011 that terminated
early.

In November 2011, an Army-led project notched the U.S. military's first hypersonic
boost-glide success when the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon was launched from the
same location in Hawaii to Kwajalein. That test, according to DOD, demonstrated the
feasibility of a boost-glide end-to-end missile concept capability. It also yielded,
according to Pentagon officials, valuable flight, ground, modeling, and simulation data
in the areas of aerodynamics, thermal protection systems and navigation, guidance and
control.

In the effort to identify a Conventional Prompt Strike capability, the Pentagon has
funded two different types of ultra-fast missile technology development: hypersonic
glide vehicles, which glide to their target while skimming at the top of the atmosphere,
and hypersonic cruise missiles, powered during their entire flight by high-speed jet
engines.

In 2012, Pentagon leaders in classified guidance directed the program to shift away from
developing a hypersonic weapon with a “global” range and instead focus on a “regional”
reach.

In 2013, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council directed in a classified

memorandum that the Conventional Prompt Strike program focus on demonstrating the
feasibility of hypersonic boost-glide for a potential intermediate-range strike system
independent of service as well as basing or launch platform, according to DOD.

In October 2013, the Conventional Prompt Strike program conducted a key high-speed
ground test of a new warhead developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
replicating flight conditions of the prototype Kinetic Energy Projectile mounted on a
sled and propelled at speeds greater than three times the speed of sound.

In 2014, the Conventional Prompt Strike program attempted a second launch of the
AHW, seeking to demonstrate a 5,400-nautical-mile flight from the Kodiak Launch
Complex in Alaska to Kwajalein Atoll, but a booster rocket experienced an anomaly after
liftoff and caused authorities to terminate the flight for safety reasons.

Following that setback, the Office of the Secretary of Defense tapped the Navy to
conduct the next test flight of a candidate Conventional Prompt Global Strike capability
-- the just-completed FE-1. The service was tasked with modifying the Army-developed
Advanced Hypersonic Weapon by scaling it down as a first step toward shrinking it
further to eventually launch from a ship, including a submarine.

“The flight vehicle was reduced in size from the 2014 test,” Weatherington said. “The
direction of the program three years ago was to maintain basing options -- but include
potential maritime options as one basing consideration. Maritime basing options are
generally more volume constrained than land-based options might be. So, there was
work to reduce the size of the hyper glide vehicle.”

The recent U.S. hypersonic success comes as China and Russia are, according to press
reports, actively working to develop a similar ultra-fast weapon, conducting as many as
four flight tests a year of the DF-FZ and 3K22 Tsirkon systems respectively.

While the Conventional Prompt Strike program conducts flight tests less frequently, the
Defense Department maintains its approach to mature hypersonic technologies is
sound, utilizing what it calls a “synergistic combination” of modeling and simulation,
ground testing and flight testing with the goal of building a formal acquisition program
in the near future.

The Conventional Prompt Strike program, according to DOD, has taken a deliberate
approach to technology maturation by relying on the strong ground test and modeling
capabilities of the United States. This approach has allowed the department to acquire
data at significantly less cost than flight testing, according to DOD.

As DOD reduces risk with the hypersonic glide vehicle, it is now beginning to focus on a
potential new booster dedicated to launching such payloads.

In October, the Navy locked in requirements for a very-high-speed missile that could
provide a key component for a potential prototype Conventional Prompt Strike
capability and launched a competition to design, build and ground-test a booster
capable of delivering a hypersonic glide body payload.

“A more purpose-built booster would allow an operational capability to be delivered,”

Weatherington said, noting the Pentagon has not made a decision to develop a
hypersonic strike acquisition program.

In a related effort, the Navy's SSP office has retained Lockheed Martin and Raytheon
since 2014 to draft technical proposals for an offensive hypersonic weapon as part of an
ongoing analysis of alternatives for a conventional prompt strike capability DOD aims to
codify in a program of record by 2020.

The work by these two companies is not expected to produce a system-level

development of a specific hypersonic weapon. The technical trade studies are to evaluate
technology options and compare the performance and technology as well as the cost of
various options.

Meanwhile, Pentagon leaders continue to refine thinking about U.S. military needs to
hit critical targets on short notice, establishing Time-Sensitive Target Engagement
Weapons (TSTEW) as a new term.

The Joint Requirements Oversight Council -- led by Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Gen. Paul Selva -- convened on Sept. 27, 2016, to review matters, including the
need for a hypersonic strike weapon.

"TSTEW serves as the new umbrella term that encompasses the capability
requirements," Maj. Lisa Lawrence told Inside Defense of the JROC meeting last fall.
"The resultant classified JROC memorandum reiterated the validity of the previously
approved PGS ICD and provided updated guidance for further analysis of the topic," she
added, using DOD's acronym for the Prompt Global Strike initial capability document.

The Conventional Prompt Strike national team includes experts from the Army, Navy,
Air Force, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to mature critical
technologies in advance of a potential acquisition program. In addition, the Pentagon is
working with a number of other entities to develop an intermediate range conventional
prompt strike capability, including Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Johns Hopkins
University/Applied Physics Laboratory, Naval Surface Warfare Centers at Dahlgren, VA,
Crane, IN, and the NSWC Re-Entry Systems Office, Army Aviation and Missile Research
Development and Engineering Center, Air Force Space and Missile Center and U.S.
Strategic Command.

Additional reporting by Lee Hudson