France has a program about hypervelocity though :
For more than nine years now, there has been talk of a successor to the Air-to-Ground Medium-Range Missile [ASMP], on which the airborne component of France's nuclear deterrent is currently based, which relies on the Strategic Air Forces [SAF] and the Naval Nuclear Air Force [NNAF].
One of the first to mention it was General Denis Mercier, then chief of staff of the French Air Force, during a parliamentary hearing in the spring of 2014. At the time, he had explained, two projects were being studied, one favoring stealth, the other emphasizing hypervelocity. In other words, the debate was about the possibility of developing a hypersonic missile.
A few months later, having indicated that the successor to the ASMP would be the ASN4G [4th generation Air-Ground Nuclear], Jean-Yves Le Drian, then Minister of Defence, suggested that the debate between stealth and hypervelocity had not yet been decided. "Bold designs, using stealth or hyper-velocity technologies for example, at the cutting edge of technological developments, will be explored," he said.
In any case, the two options envisaged implied taking up several technological challenges, as the Office national d'études et de recherches aérospatiales [ONERA] briefly pointed out in its 2015-25 strategic plan.
Thus, it argued, the "strategy of penetration of adversary defences by missiles at hypersonic speeds remains a major scientific and technological challenge", requiring the use of a "very large number of disciplines" such as aerodynamics, propulsion, the architecture of the vector, its control and piloting. The same applies to stealth, which "requires materials with durable characteristics compatible with the severity of the environments they are used in, as well as mission preparation systems optimized for responsiveness and maximum penetration of defenses.
In any case, in a budgetary notice published in October 2021, the deputy Christophe Lejeune made it known that a "technological solution" for this ASN4G was going to be "soon retained".
"ONERA and [the missile manufacturer] MBDA have developed two tracks for this future missile: a ramjet missile from the Camosis upstream study plan [PEA], and a hypervelocity super ramjet missile from the Prometheus PEA," the deputy had indeed indicated. He added: "The technological solution that should be chosen soon could be a manoeuvring hypersonic missile capable of guaranteeing the penetration capacity of defences, in a context of increasing [A2/AD] denial of access.
More specifically, the Camosis PEA emphasised stealth, with a missile capable of flying at 4,000 to 5,000 km/h [i.e. below the hypersonic threshold], i.e. at twice the speed of an ASMP/A. As for the Prometheus PEA, it focused on hypervelocity. A priori, it was the subject of a mixed ramjet test [an engine capable of performing successively a subsonic and supersonic combustion, nldr], carried out recently in the United States.
That said, during a parliamentary hearing that brought together the main industrialists involved in nuclear deterrence, Admiral [2S] Hervé de Bonnaventure, defence advisor to the CEO of MBDA, said a little more about the ASN4G and confirmed the technological choices concerning it.
Thus, we learn that "technological work" on this ASN4G began in the 1990s, "in parallel with the preparation of the ASMPA [A for improved] and that it was "clearly oriented towards the very high speed domain".
"Since then, we have had the means to test the missile and simulate the flight of the ASN4G in hypervelocity," said Admiral de Bonnaventure, before specifying that MBDA has conducted, in co-contracting with ONERA, studies on hypersonics since 2000-2010, as part of the PROMETHEE 1, 2 and 3 programs.
"The performance of the ASN4G is even better than that of the ASMPA-R [R for renovated]. The ASN4G should be operational by 2035 and should remain so beyond the 2050s: it is therefore necessary to anticipate the ground/air defences of the adversary by that time," he added. Hence the creation of a research department within MBDA, bringing together "ten or so employees", responsible for carrying out a "continuous study of the adversary's defence".
However, the adviser to the CEO of MBDA continued, "it appears that very high performance in terms of speed and manoeuvre is the best method for achieving the latest possible detection, and complicating the task of tracking a radar, or even a collision, and, finally, disrupting an anti-missile missile attack.
As a reminder, the ASMPA-R has the particularity of being able to follow several trajectories [low altitude, very low altitude and high altitude] in order to evade enemy radars. In theory, the same will be true of the ASN4G... but at much higher speeds. "We are entering the field of hypersonics. The load factor will also be multiplied in the terminal phase to decoy enemy defences," insisted Admiral de Bonnaventure.
Finally, he concluded, "the ASN4G, thanks to its limited size and weight, will be compatible with the Rafale and catapultable by an aircraft carrier, in line with the objectives defined by the President of the Republic. This is a unique technical achievement in the world.
During the same hearing, André-Hubert Roussel, executive chairman of ArianeGroup, confirmed that the first flight of the V-MAX hypersonic glider, launched by a sounding rocket, is "scheduled" and that a second demonstrator, the V-MAX2, will be "the extension" of it. He added: "At the same time, the French defense procurement agency (Direction Générale de l'Armement) has entrusted us with several upstream studies on future weapons systems based on these hypersonic technologies.
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source :
opex360.com