Hypersonic missiles, here is the US plan to compete with Russia and China
US plans on hypersonic missiles. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
The US Congress is giving the Missile Defense Agency the authority to develop laser technology for use in ballistic and hypersonic missile defense applications for fiscal year 2022 under the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act.
This authorization refers to the Airborne Ballistic Laser program , which started in the 1970s and was strongly supported by George W. Bush but the costs and technical challenges meant that the program was eventually downgraded.
However, since 2010 there has been quite convincing evidence of the effectiveness of this program when thanks to this technology it was possible to destroy a short-range ballistic missile.
In fact, in 2010, Missile Defense Agency officials demonstrated the potential use of direct energy to defend against ballistic missiles when the Airborne Laser Testbed successfully destroyed a boosting ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean.
The experiment, conducted at Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off the central coast of California, serves as a proof-of-concept demonstration for direct energy technology. This was the first demonstration of lethal interception of energy directed against a liquid fuel ballistic missile target originating from an aerial platform.
The revolutionary use of direct energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers, and at a low cost per interception attempt compared to current technologies.
Of course, this technology will not only lead to a new escalation in the global arms race – beyond Biden's campaign promises that are increasingly turning out to be smoke and mirrors – but should allow the United States to compete on an equal footing with China and Russia. in the field of contrasting hypersonic missiles.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/missili-ipersonici-ecco-il-piano-usa-per-competere-con-russia-e-cina/ on Sun, 02 Jan 2022 07:50:56 +0000.