专家：中国可能误判美国发展快速打击能力

choi

VOA Chinese, Nov 18, 2013
http://www.voachinese.com/conten ... 131118/1792796.html
("美国今年成功测试了'常规快速全球打击'（CPGS）的武器技术，这种武器和能力可以在短时间内打击远程目标。尽管专家说，美国在发展这种能力上仍然处于探索阶段，国会也没有批准任何具体项目 * * * 美国5月初在太平洋上空成功测试了X-51高超声速巡航导弹 (hypersonic cruise missile)，又在10月间成功测试了设计这种武器技术飞行环境的战斗部")

My comment:
(a) CPGS: Conventional Prompt Global Strike
(b) The quotation takes me by surprise.
(c) X-51A
(i) Chris Haddox, The X-51A Soars to New Heights. Boeing, May 1, 2013
www.boeing.com/boeing/Features/2013/05/bds_x51_05_03_13.page
contains two clips:
(A) a video whose ending states, "The X-51A WaveRider program is a joint program between Boeing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Darpa and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne."
(B) an animation.
(ii) As far as I can recall, I did not know of the May 1, 2013 testing of X-51A until today. What I did know was

X-51 Waverider: Hypersonic jet ambitions fall short
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/ ... mbitions-fall-short
Sharon Weinberger, X-51 Waverider: Hypersonic Jet Ambitions Fall Short. BBC, Aug 15, 2012
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/ ... mbitions-fall-short
("The most recent test flight ended in failure on Tuesday when a faulty control fin caused the US Air Force X-51 Waverider jet to lose control and crash into the Pacific Ocean. The missile-like vehicle -  powered by a supersonic combustion engine known as a scramjet - was dropped from a B-52 bomber off the coast of southern California  It was supposed to be propelled by a solid-rocket booster, then ignite its scramjet engine to reach speeds of up to Mach 6. In the end, the test flight lasted just 31 seconds")

BBC did not report the May 1, 2013 testing (I just googled and found so).
(iii) Boeing X-51
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-51

Quote:

"The X-51 is named 'WaveRider' because it uses its shock waves to add lift.

"On May 1, 2013, the X-51 performed its first fully successful flight test on its fourth test flight. The X-51 and booster detached from a B-52H and was powered to Mach 4.8 (3,200 mph; 5,100 km/h) by a booster rocket. It then separated cleanly from the booster and ignited its own engine. The test aircraft then accelerated to Mach 5.1 (3,400 mph; 5,400 km/h) and flew for 240 seconds until running out of fuel and plunging into the Pacific Ocean off Point Mugu; this test was the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight. Researchers collected flight telemetry data for 370 seconds. The test signified the completion of the program.  The Air Force Research Laboratory believes the successful flight will serve as research for practical applications of hypersonic flight, such as a missile, reconnaissance, transport, and air-breathing first stage for a space system." (citations omitted)

(c) I can not find in the Web anything related to "在10月间成功测试了设计这种武器技术飞行环境的战斗部."

(d) There are two additional hypersonic vehicles (SR-72 and Falcon HTV-2, both of Lockheed Martin). See

Hypersonic Plane on the Drawing Board. VOA, Nov 4, 2013
http://www.voanews.com/content/s ... -board/1783308.html

, which cites

Meet the SR-72. Lockheed Martin,
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2013/sr-72.html
(unmanned aircraft to fly at speeds up to Mach 6)

Quote:

"For the past several years, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® has been working with Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop a method to integrate an off-the-shelf turbine with a supersonic combustion ramjet air breathing jet engine to power the aircraft from standstill to Mach 6. The result is the SR-72 that Aviation Week has dubbed 'son of Blackbird'

"SR-72 is not the first hypersonic Skunk Works® aircraft. In partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, engineers developed the rocket-launched Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2).
(i) Guy Norris, Exclusive: Skunk Works Reveals SR-71 Successor Plan. Aviation Week, Nov 1, 2013 (cover story: Son of Blackbird).
www.aviationweek.com/Article.asp ... _2013_p0-632731.xml

Underneath the byline is "Source: AWIN First" where AWIN stands for
Aviation Week Intelligence Network
https://www.aviationweek.com/awin
("A vehicle penetrating at high altitude and Mach 6, a speed viewed by Lockheed Martin as the “sweet spot” for practical air-breathing hypersonics")

(ii) The supplied link to Lockheed Martin's "Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2" offers little information.
(iii) Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird
(SR = Strategic Reconnaissance)