Defense Technology International - May 2008 - (Page 25)

DEFENSE STRATEGIC NO PLACE TO HIDE U.S. Army closes in on a global strike mission NASA CONCEPT BILL SWEETMAN•MINNEAPOLIS F or the first time in half a century, the U.S. Army is moving to acquire the ability to launch long-range strikes over a distance of up to 3,250 naut. mi. (6,022 km.). The capability will come from a rocketboosted, precision-guided glider called the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW), made practical by new materials from Sandia National Laboratories. It is more than 50 years since the Army was forced to give its Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), designed by a team led by Wernher von Braun, to the U.S. Air Force. Now, the service’s Space & Missile Defense Center sees an opening for AHW as the Pentagon looks for ways to meet a new need: the ability to deliver a non-nuclear strike at any target in the world within an hour of the decision to attack. The Prompt Global Strike (PGS) requirement has been simmering since the late 1990s, when USAF proposed it as part of a mission set for the Military Spaceplane (MSP) project. The MSP, a two-stage reusable system that would also have been used as a launch vehicle, was backed by Congress but blocked by the Clinton administration. In 2002, however, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz directed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to start work on a long-range precision strike system. This became the Force Application from Continental U.S. (Falcon) project. Sharp-edged hypersonic shapes, made possible by new materials, are key to highperformance glide vehicles. Underlying Falcon was the “new triad” deﬁned by the U.S. nuclear posture review published in January 2002, which reﬂected the passing of the Soviet Union and increased concern about weapons of mass destruction, both nuclear and non-nuclear. The old triad was exclusively nuclear and offensive, and comprised land- and sea-based missiles and bombers. The new triad comprises nuclear and conventional long-range strike, missile defense and the maintenance of a technology base to deter adversaries from developing threats. A key element of Falcon was technology for a Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), a 25 AviationWeek.com/dti MAY 2008 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL http://AviationWeek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - May 2008 Contents Around the World Science Watch Tech Watch Learn and Live Think Again Vive la Difference En Route Out of the Box Package Deal On Watch Inside Job Programs Update The Net Back to the Future Busy Signal Mighty Mites Hull of an Idea Tough Enough Cutting Edge First Person In Review Insight

Defense Technology International - May 2008

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