Hypersonic Missiles Arms Race: What You Need to Know

the u.s air force took a tiny but important step toward a future where weapons will be able to work together to take advantage of the latest intelligence on the battlefield the recent test of two collaborative small diameter bombs is a validation of the air force's golden horde concept which uses the sensors of weapons streaking toward their targets to evaluate the battlefield and turn their attention to bigger more important targets on the ground modern warfare has come a long way since the day of world war ii's massive bomber raids over occupied europe a single f-35a strike fighter can now do much more damage by placing guided bombs precisely on target then dozens of b-17 flying fortress bombers dropping unguided bombs one problem that's persisted is the interval between when targets are selected by mission planners and the bombs actually striking their targets improved communications and intelligence gathering have shrunk the interval considerably as has a pilot's ability to change targets still once a pilot releases a bomb there isn't usually an option for swapping targets based on the weapon's sharp-eyed sensors which are collecting data right up until the moment the weapon smashes into the target golden horde aims to change that by allowing weapons to use their own sensor data to make their own decisions with the tag weapons can establish a communications link with each other and then use a series of plays criteria set in place by mission planners to collectively analyze their data and change targeting if necessary future bombs missiles and other munitions will be able to change targeting in flight allowing the air force to detect and strike high priority targets that might have just rolled onto the battlefield in the recent test in f-16 fighting falcon fighter jet released two small diameter bombs which communicated with each other and discovered the presence of an enemy gps seeker in the target area from the air force research lab the bombs determined that the jammer was not the highest priority target the weapons then collaborated to identify the two highest priority targets however due to an improper weapon software load the collaboration guidance commands were not sent to the weapon navigation system without the updated target locations the weapons impacted a fail-safe target location golden horde does not utilize artificial intelligence but rather a system more like the if then commands built into computer software the air force says for example if a user plugs her iphone into a computer then the computer will launch apple music in golden horde's case if a bomb is streaking toward a radar installation and then the bomb's infrared seeker detects a nuclear-capable ballistic missile launcher the bomb will home in on the launcher instead even better one golden horde enabled bomb can tell other bombs in flight what it discovered after launch all of the bombs will then come to the same conclusion that the launcher is more important than the original target piling on and helping to ensure its destruction the gbu-39 small diameter bomb is an unpowered precision guided bomb that consists of a 250-pound bomb payload a seeker sensor package and a guidance kit a fighter or bomber can release the sdb from distances of up to 60 miles whereupon the bomb will glide down and strike its designated target the pentagon's defense advanced research projects agency or darpa is preparing to build a working copy of the new op fires hypersonic missile op fires destined for the us army will give the service the ability to strike targets with a fleeting window of opportunity covering the weapon's 1000 mile range in 20 minutes op fires recently passed a preliminary design review that resulted in a comprehensive design and test plan according to a darpa statement the r d shop will now advance the program to full scale missile fabrication assembly and flight testing from a launch vehicle flight testing is scheduled to begin in 2022 once op fires is proven to work darpa will hand off the whole program to the army to make the next move the army envisions op fires as a so-called boost glide weapon system the op fire's hypersonic glide vehicle sits atop a large truck-mounted missile when launched the missile accelerates to hypersonic speeds carrying the glide vehicle to very high altitudes but remaining within earth's atmosphere instead of entering low earth orbit like a ballistic missile warhead the op fire's glide vehicle levels off and then glides down onto targets at hypersonic speeds it's not clear how fast op fires will eventually go but at mach 5 a glide vehicle travels at 3 836 miles per hour fast enough to go the full 1000 miles in less than 20 minutes the russian avant-garde boost glide weapon for example travels at mach 20 using an icbm booster according to darpa op fires could be used to penetrate existing air defenses unprepared to engage hypersonic weapons it could for example kick in the door for crude aircraft smashing air defense systems in their path as they fly on to bomb a critical target the army could also use op fires to attack the targets themselves lockheed martin envisions mounting op fires to a heavy truck chassis and transporting it onto a c-130 hercules transport that could result in the ability for op fires to conduct raids flying into remote airstrips near the edge of the battle area firing off its missiles and then quickly departing today that mission is practiced by highmars rocket crews but op fires would allow the army to shoot much farther into the enemy's interior op fires is technically an intermediate-range weapon and until recently it would have been banned under the 1987 treaty on intermediate nuclear forces or inf which outlawed medium and intermediate-range missiles b-61 nuclear bomb the b-61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the united states enduring stockpile following the end of the cold war it is a low to intermediate yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design the b61 is of the variable yield design with a yield of 0.3 to 340 kilotons in its various mods it has a streamlined casing capable of withstanding supersonic flight speeds is 11 feet 8 inches or 3.56 meters long with a diameter of about 13 inches or 33 centimeters the basic weight is about 700 pounds or 320 kilograms although the weights of individual weapons may vary depending on version and fuse retardation configuration as of 2021 it is undergoing a 12th modification according to the federation of american scientists in 2012 the roughly 400 b-61-12 will cost 28 million dollars apiece in november 2015 a test of the mod 12 was conducted where the bomb penetrated underground showing its potential as a nuclear earth penetrator although ground penetration was not an objective of the mod 12 upgrade this could allow it to take up the penetrating mission of the mod 11 which has no life extension planned and will expire in the 2030s being able to penetrate underground increases its effectiveness against buried targets as it more efficiently transmits explosive energy through enhanced ground shock coupling allowing its max yield of 50 kilotons underground to have the equivalent surface burst capability of a 750 kiloton to 1.25 megaton weapon the mod 12's increased accuracy and earth penetration capability allows a lower strike yield to be selected reducing radioactive fallout risk potentially making it more attractive to military planners we hope you liked this video and we want to know which was your favorite and don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and hit the subscribe button and the bell down below if you want to make sure you never miss out on important new information like this [Music] do [Music] foreign

Channel: ETERN

Views: 1,397

Keywords: us, us military, army, air missions, rocket, american missiles, missiles, us navy, us military news, hypersonic missile, military, us missiles, missile, us army

Id: YT6Jbiz0OKg

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 11 2022