Experimental U.S. hypersonic weapon destroyed seconds after launch

[jakeXT]

Last edited Wed Aug 27, 2014, 05:54 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A hypersonic weapon being developed by the U.S. military was destroyed four seconds after its launch from a test range in Alaska early on Monday after controllers detected a problem with the system, the Pentagon said.

The weapon is part of a program to create a missile that will destroy targets anywhere on Earth within an hour of getting data and permission to launch.

The mission was aborted to ensure public safety, and no one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. EDT at the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, said Maureen Schumann, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Department.

..

It was a setback for the U.S. program, which some analysts see as countering the growing development of ballistic missiles by Iran and North Korea but others say is part of an arms race with China, which tested a hypersonic system in January.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/experimental-u-hypersonic-weapon-explodes-during-flight-test-151527239.html

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The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, exploding in Alaska

According to one witness, who was about 12 miles from the launch site, the explosion was loud and frightening, with a bright fireball afterward. KMXT radio reported that the rocket lifted off, and then very quickly turned nose-down and exploded. “We had to terminate,” a US DoD spokesperson said. “The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down in the range complex.”


http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/188675-us-militarys-experimental-hypersonic-weapon-explodes-seconds-after-launch

[LibDemAlways]

1. More wasted millions flushed down the endess black hole of defense

spending.

[SoapBox]

2. Ditto

[City Lights]

9. Yup. nt

[harun]

11. Wasted for the 99%, the 1% who profits from it love it.

[Brigid]

18. More like billions.

But who's counting?

[MannyGoldstein]

3. 50 years ago, the X-15 went 4,500 mph with a person inside

We can't get an unmanned craft to do that today?

What am I missing here? Must be something.

[BlueEye]

6. Well, this thing is supposed to glide in the 7,000 to 8,000 mph ballpark.

My non-technical understanding of this new toy is that it rides up to sub-orbit on a standard missile (a modified Peacekeeper ICBM) and is then jettisoned to glide down to the target at hypersonic speeds. They want it to be steerable during the entire mission, and (unlike a normal re-entry vehicle like the Space Shuttle), they don't want it to slow down that much, even after the plasma phase has ended. It should have a very high Mach number until the payload (presumably nuclear weapons) reaches its target.

Apparently this has been very hard to accomplish thus far. They're very good at wasting money.

[raven mad]

4. Sigh. Launched of their installation on Kodiak Island.

Friends heard it; I'm too far away.

IDIOTS. What they spent on this crap could have fed a bunch of folks for a long, long time.

[BlueEye]

5. Was the failure four seconds after rocket launch?

Or four seconds after deployment of the hypersonic vehicle? Since this thing rides up to (almost) space on a rocket, that's actually a huge difference. Four seconds off the launch pad means the thing didn't even fly.

[jakeXT]

8. “The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down the range complex,”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11785210

[Hoppy]

7. See. And yiz libiral bastids useta make fun of our President Reagan.

Ya called him Ronnie Raygun because he used forward visioning to tell us we needed a missile defense system to knock out incoming missiles. Ya laughed at him and called it Star Wars stuff.

Well, the jokes on you. This one almost worked.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

10. There's a certain zen symmetry to that.

Destroying a WMD because they don't want it to hurt anyone...

[Kelvin Mace]

12. "The mission was aborted to ensure public safety"

The entire project needs to be aborted to ensure public safety and protect it from fiscal harm.

[L0oniX]

13. A hypersonic drone by any other name... n/t

[FLPanhandle]

14. Experimental platforms usually do fail

Engineers will learn from this.

A platform like this may one day be the basis for a fast response to Earth threatening asteroids.

[Octafish]

15. In those four seconds, we learned more about hypersonic ICBMs than ever was known before...

...the time We the People decided to turn the Pentagon into a welfare for the wealthy delivery system.

Then, that was way before We the People decided to change welfare as we know it, go to endless war for profits without end, and sign the IOUs to the casino from Wall Street.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. isn't democracy grand?

[Brigid]

17. This is why . . .

We have crumbling infrastructure, lousy schools, a health care "system" that still leaves millions out, no social welfare system to speak of, no jobs programs, people living in RV's and traveling from place to place in them looking for work like the hobos of old riding the rails used to do, people starving because their food stamps have been cut to nothing -- do I need to go on?

We have money but we throw it away on boondoggles like this.