DoD needs to rebuild competency in hypersonic flight test

We need to move rapidly toward weaponization of hypersonics. We have already demonstrated that we have the technical understanding to address both the challenges of boost glide and air-breathing hypersonics. We just need to get on and do it.

 

I was dismayed at the most recent statements coming from the leadership at the most recent Air Force Association meeting where you have individuals possibly pausing, not quite certain what hypersonics brings to the fight. The idea that, well, we have problems with our 5th generation fighters getting in close to targets because the air defense systems are so powerful now that if we get in close to release short range weapons the 5th generation system is in danger. Then in the same breath saying, we don’t see why we need to push ahead with hypersonics as rapidly as we do.

That was Richard Hallion on the Aerospace Advantage podcast, Hypersonic Strike: Have China and Russia Won the Race?

Here’s more from Mark Lewis, executive director of the emerging technologies institute of NDIA and former chief scientist of the US Air Force:

One of the great advantages of hypersonics is that it allows you to use a tactical system and produce strategic results. Think about the effect of a hypersonic missile against an aircraft carrier. That’s a $25 billion asset with thousands of lives on board. Think of an asset that can crater a runway so we can’t even get our air force in the air. That is a strategic result.

 

… We have allowed our test infrastructure to atrophy. We have been decommissioning wind tunnels at the same rate China is building new wind tunnels. That’s just one example. The engine of choice that can power a hypersonic cruise missile is a scram-jet engine. Today, in the United States, you wish to test a full-scale scram-jet engine, you have two choices. You can go to NASA’s Langley facility, or you can go to the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Center. They are both fully booked…

 

We need to recapture our ability to do flight test. In recent years, we have failed in virtually every one of our flight tests. Why is that? Several reasons. We forgot how to do it. If you’re not repeatedly doing something, you don’t retain your competency. We’ve gone to a model where we test one-zies, two-zies every couple of months or years.