Military Tech

The X-51A WaveRider hypersonic flight test vehicle was uploaded to an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 for fit testing at Edwards Air Force Base.

(Credit: USAF)

The X-51A WaveRider is one step closer to its inaugural test flight later this year, now that airmen at Edwards Air Force Base have successfully "mated" the scramjet-propelled vehicle to a B-52 Stratofortress.

In December, an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 is scheduled to papoose the X-51A to 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean before cutting it loose. At that point, a solid rocket booster from an ATACMS missile will fire up, accelerating the X-51 to about Mach 4.5. That's when the supersonic combustion ramjet kicks in, pushing the WaveRider to more than Mach 6 for up to five minutes, longer than all of its predecessors combined. NASA tests have reached Mach 9.6, or nearly 7,000 mph, according to some reports, but not for very long. The previous record was less than 10 seconds. Flight data will be telemetered back to Edwards Force Base before the X-51A test vehicle crashes into the Pacific.

A scramjet is an air-breathing engine that burns regular jet fuel, and may be the key to allowing airplanes to travel at speeds normally reserved for rockets. The engine requires no onboard oxidizers, but rather uses its own forward motion to compress air for fuel combustion. The X-51's chiseled nose allows it to "ride" shock waves that would pulverize a lesser craft. The X-51 was developed by Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and DARPA in order to "demonstrate a reliable system capable of operating continuously on jet fuel and accelerating through multiple Mach numbers."

"The heart of this aircraft is its engine," said Charlie Brink, X-51 program manager at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

"We're really breaking new ground in our understanding of hypersonic propulsion, but our four planned test flights will also enhance our knowledge of airframe-engine integration, high-temperature materials and other technologies. Together they will help us bridge air and space."

Future applications for the scramjet include access-to-space, reconnaissance and speedy, global strike capability.

(Credit: USAF)

Enemy combatants are close to feeling the heat from an airborne laser weapon called the "long-range blowtorch" and, if officials at US Air Force are right, nobody will know what hit them.

The 5.5-ton Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) combines chlorine and hydrogen peroxide molecules to release energy that stimulates iodine into an intense infra-red, silent and invisible laser with a 20 kilometres striking range.

New Scientist reports that both Cynthia Kaiser, chief engineer of the US Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate and John Corley, director of USAF's Capabilities Integration Directorate, used the phrase "plausible deniability" at industry briefings to describe one of the weapon's advantages, namely "that the US could convincingly deny any involvement with the destruction it causes".(PDF)

"The target would never know what hit them," John Pike, an analyst with defense think-tank Global Security told New Scientist. "Further, there would be no munition fragments that could be used to identify the source of the strike."

Besides the covert - plausible deniability angle, other pros to this 100KW-class high energy laser include "ultra speed of light engagement" and pinpoint accuracy, according to Boeing.(PDF)

Boeing recently tested the ATL at Kirtland Air Force Base Base N.M., firing the high-energy chemical laser through a rotating turret mounted on the belly of a Hercules C-130H. The company claims the weapons is accurate enough to pick off a vehicle's tires.

"This is a major step toward providing the ultra-precision engagement capability that the warfighter needs to dramatically reduce collateral damage," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. A larger version that can pick an incoming ICBM out of the sky will be mounted on a Boeing 747, according to the Chicago, Illinois based company. (Video)

The U.S. Navy is seeking its own version to take out "small boat threats".

(Credit: L-3 Communications/Brashear)

(Credit: Popular Mechanics)

Boeing has rolled out the marketing for its laser-equipped Humvee by zapping five IED-like targets on a test range at Alabama's Redstone Arsenal (PDF) in what it called "the company's ability to rapidly respond to warfighters' needs."

Dubbed the "Laser Avenger," the unit consists of a 1-kilowatt solid-state laser mounted on an air-defense Humvee. It works by "shooting an invisible beam just a few centimeters in diameter and 20 times hotter than an electric stovetop" into the offending munition until it combusts internally. It then just "pops" or "fizzles" in a low-level detonation.

"Boeing's investment strategy is to move some of its new directed energy weapon systems into field demonstrations, and Laser Avenger is the first one we're rolling out," Boeing's Gary Fitzmire said in a press release.

This application is hardly new. Ten years ago an ordnance disposal unit at Nellis Air Force Base was using an APC-mounted 2KW YAG laser to nix hundreds of unexploded cluster bombs on its bombing range.

In 2003, the U.S. Army deployed a ZEUS-HLONS (HMMWV Laser Ordnance Neutralization System) to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where it popped more than 200 pieces of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in six months. It even set a record by "negating" more than 50 UXOs in less than two hours.

While this and other laser units allow EOD teams to stand off at a safe distance and dispose of an IED, they still need to find it. And when it comes to that, the Avenger is just another target on the road.

The company hedged its bets by cutting up some UAVs during the demonstration in a nod to the anti-aircraft market. But as you see by the video, it's not breaking any ground there either.