Next year will see the Precision Strike Missile tested at its maximum range of over 300 miles. The base model enters service in 2023, with range and targeting upgrades to follow.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The service’s new AimPoint plan builds very different forces for Europe and the Pacific – but new high-level artillery HQs are central to both.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“We want to deliver hypersonics at scale,” said R&D director Mark Lewis, from air-breathing cruise missiles to rocket-boosted gliders that fly through space.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The first four flight tests – one a failure — took nine years. The next five will take less than three years.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.While Army and Navy spending nearly double, Air Force and independent agency spending drops almost 40 percent.
By Theresa Hitchens and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.For the rest of this year, the Navy is doubling down on its boosters, conducting a series of static fire tests to collect data before another test firing. “We’ve been crawling, now we’re starting to walk where we’re going to get the booster design done — we’re going to static test this year — and then we will start to truly, truly run,” Wolfe said.
By Paul McLearyThe original TOW was a revolutionary tank-killer when it entered service in 1970. With a new warhead, improved guidance, and greater range, the newest model is not your grandfather’s guided missile.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The two services will use the same rocket booster and glide body, just packaged differently to fire from trucks vs. ships, with the Army version entering service in 2023.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Precision Strike Missile’s rocket booster is so powerful that short-range shots actually put more stress on the weapon than letting it loose to fly its full distance, Lockheed told us.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Before manned aircraft enter hostile airspace, three different types of drones – long-range, tactical, and miniaturized – will rip open the seams in the enemy’s defenses.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Israeli manufacturer Rafael says its anti-rocket system can now shoot down cruise missiles. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and acquisition chief Bruce Jette are saying, show us the data.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Research and development spending on hypersonics will nearly double in ‘21, and it will triple for lasers, as the service rushes to deploy combat-ready prototypes.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Lockheed Martin is designing what it calls a new Hypersonic Strike Weapon-Air Breathing (which goes by the awful acronym HSW-ab) for DARPA. John Varley, Lockheed’s VP for hypersonic weapons, wouldn’t provide details due to the program’s high level of classification.
By Theresa Hitchens