WASHINGTON – Cooperation between the US and Australian Ministries of Defense will allow the acquisition of new hypersonic missiles shortly, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing Defence24. They would mainly enrich the arsenal of smaller aircraft, such as fighter jets.
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The United States and Australia are constantly working to develop a hypersonic cruise missile under the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Science Experiment [SCIFiRE] program. As Breaking Defense writes, the aforementioned SCIFiRE should be read as a natural derivative of Allied hypersonic propulsion efforts dating back to 2007. The Americans and Australians focused on this potentially breakthrough technology as part of the International Hypersonic Flight Research Experiment [HIFiRE] project. At the same time, it is emphasized that the potential development of SCIFiRE would be an ideal bridge project before the development of the DARPA concept as part of hypersonic technologies, ie.
It is also noted that Australia offers one of the best infrastructures in the world for testing hypersonic technologies. This applies to closed facilities where the operation of drives up to 30 Mach can be developed. At the same time, Australian landfills can be very effective in testing specific solutions that are already outside the laboratory. Americans, of course, have enormous scientific, technological, and financial capabilities, not to mention the scope of activities of American defense companies developing their research on hypersonic propulsion.
The new hypersonic missile itself will go to equip aircraft currently used by the armed forces of both countries and will carry a warhead with a conventional payload. As Breaking Defense reported, contracts for the next phase of the program have been awarded to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, but it is still possible that Raytheon will also be admitted to the next phase.
Work on the US-Australian program is due to take place from November last year. The tests should take place in the mid-1920s. Finally, in case of its implementation, the new weapons will be delivered to F / A-18 Hornet, EA-18 Growler, P-8A Poseidon, and Machines F-35A Lightning II. Thanks to SCIFiRE, hypersonic missiles will become part of the arsenal of smaller aircraft, not just bombers. It is planned that with the new design, the unit prices of the missiles may also be reduced compared to the current ones.
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