Big win for Anduril. Even if they end up loosing to General Atomics, they still beat out Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop in the first round.
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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Big win for Anduril. Even if they end up loosing to General Atomics, they still beat out Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop in the first round.
corect me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the whole point of this tender to maintain multiple sources for the LW/CCA fleet?
Thread on current US hypersonic acquisition
Highlights:
- Chief USAF scientist confirms ARRW is the 'most mature hypersonic weapon we have'
- AUKUS bringing hypersonics weapons sharing
- Biggest cost driver is selecting appropriate solid rocket motors that consistently meets mission parameters and affordable
Highlights:
- Chief USAF scientist confirms ARRW is the 'most mature hypersonic weapon we have'
- AUKUS bringing hypersonics weapons sharing
- Biggest cost driver is selecting appropriate solid rocket motors that consistently meets mission parameters and affordable
There was never any question they would eventually achieve this. The only real question was whether they would be able to do so at a per unit cost that makes them competitive with China. Given American munitions generally cost around half an order of magnitude to one order of magnitude more than Chinese munitions, that means China would be able to match them missile for missile at 1/5th to 1/10th the cost.
Nah, people really shouldn't be that trusting of what they say (remember the US hypersonic scientist hiring a hooker?).
Here is another perspective on US hypersonics:
Rough notes (auto translated):
Air Force:
ARRW: Cancelled, unable/problems with making the warhead.
HACM: Formerly HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept), performance is poor (reaching 18,000 meters altitude, Mach 5.1), completely within traditional air defense interception capabilities, with performance similar to X51A over a decade ago, except for engine working time (240 seconds to 360 seconds). Therefore, the demand for HACM's performance over HAWC were increased by a lot, but expected service is first 2028, which may very likely be further delayed.
Army/Navy:
LHRW/CPS: Performance is "awkward" (different sizes and weights, desired by the Navy and Army), booster is difficult to develop (not successful in a single attempt yet), poor terminal guidance capabilities (not available in the first batch), research and development progress seems to be only around 30%, expected service quantity is also awkward, with 176 missiles costing one billion dollars each, and both Army and Navy vehicles/launchers are quite awkward.
And here is link to a very long podcast about this topic (much more in-depth/details) from the same person as above + TSTO as guest:
TL: DR:
Progress is nowhere as smooth or good as US military and related says about their hypersonic programs, not to mention, it is likely that even the final products, are essentially gonna still be qualitatively worse than what China currently has in service lol (美军高超的上限在追赶中国高超的下限).
EDIT:
While I haven't gone in-depth into their sources, but I personally trust them both and that they use proper sources (they have shown/done it before).
Are they the last F15C/D still flying ? We see a net loss of capacity right there but most of these are probably canibalised for parts remnants... F15ex full operational capability is deemed to be 44 jets on duty, with all the necessary pilots, spares, and support gear. It is now expected in 2027. It's still far from the F15C/D, F-15E numbers...
C-130 need to be replaced somehow... cannot have to many of these.
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At a billion USD per missile, they can only afford to use them for a very small portion of their total nuclear weapons. And never for conventional war.