Project Mayhem USA

[CUDA]

Not about chaz

https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...ayhem-updates/

Project Mayhem, the Air Force's Secret Hypersonic Bomber, Has Begun Cooking

Development on the bomber, which will travel at Mach 10, just took a huge step forward.

• Project Mayhem, the Air Force’s secret hypersonic bomber, would be an air-breathing Mach 10 replacement for the SR-71.
• The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory recently awarded a $334 million contract to several engineering companies, including Draper, to oversee the designs, prototypes and tests of Project Mayhem.
• At hypersonic speeds, heat makes building and testing hypersonic planes tricky business.

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The engineering of next-gen weapons and defense systems is a science built around speed. In 2018, Russia made headlines when President Vladimir Putin revealed the country’s hypersonic missile system, the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, in a sizzle reel video showing the missile blowing up Florida, of all places. Although the video wasn’t quite as sleek as a new iPhone reveal, the message was apocalyptically clear: the era of hypersonic weapons was here.
What makes these weapons so deadly is that they’re designed to outrun modern air defense systems, and this hypersonic threat has only grown in the five years since Kinzhal’s debut. When it comes to the hypersonic missiles arms race, it seems like the U.S. might be slipping behind Russia or even China.
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But that might be because the U.S. military has its sights set on a bigger prize: a hypersonic bomber.
Meet the Air Force’s secret hypersonic bomber: the Expendable Hypersonic Multi-mission ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and Strike program, a.k.a. Project Mayhem.
The mighty bomber would have a few advantages over its missile-based adversaries, but the big one would be usability. Where missiles like the Kinzhal, Zircon, and China’s Dongfeng-17 are expensive (around $100 million) one-shots, a hypersonic plane traveling in excess of Mach 5—Project Mayhem would reportedly travel Mach 10—could be refueled and used again, and again, and again.
The idea of a hypersonic plane dates back to the Space Race, culminating in the North American X-15A-2 record-breaking Mach 6.7 flight in 1967. Further aerospace advancements created mechanical wonders like the supersonic SR-71. Project Mayhem would likely use a multi-cycle propulsion system, employing a jet engine to reach Mach 3 before transitioning to an air-breathing scramjet for hypersonic speeds. But designing a reusable plane at such speeds comes with serious limitations.

[CUDA]

https://youtu.be/UWcC2aFIO40

[David - WI]

What eight year-old wrote that ridiculous article? Our new hypersonic "bomber" is built for "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance"... not for dropping bombs?

[CUDA]

Not traditional at all, 7,000 MPH

Undercutting missiles at breakneck pace
Lockheed Martin
Thanks to their unique propulsion system, scramjet-propelled jets are touted to go at least as high as Mach 15. However, making such a machine is no easy task, because traveling faster than Mach 5 generates extreme heat due to air friction, and risks melting some core parts. Morever, merging the design of a traditional jet engine with the accelerating power of a scramjet engine is no easy feat, which is what has kept pushing the arrival of such an aircraft to the market yet. However, the benefits are massive.




Right now, hypersonic missiles are considered to be the pinnacle of defense — an area where the likes of China and Russia have also made notable advancements. The U.S. Air Force has already tested its first prototype hypersonic missile, the AGM-183A, that is rumored to go as fast as Mach 20. On the other hand, Project Mayhem, itself traveling at hypersonic speeds, will launch conventional missiles at the target without the risk of being detected or fired upon.


A hypersonic bomber would prove an extremely destructive, yet economical, option compared to Hypersonic missiles. To recall, the SR-71 flew under Mach 4, but was never caught by enemy missiles during its entire run.


Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/1174548/th...-so-important/