Pentagon’s Mach 20 Missile Lost Over Pacific — Again

[n2doc]

By Noah Shachtman August 11, 2011 | 4:54 pm | Categories: DarpaWatch


For the second time in a row, the Pentagon has lost contact with an experimental hypersonic vehicle over the Pacific, just minutes after it was launched from space.

The flight of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 was hotly anticipated in military and aerospace circles. The HTV-2 was supposed to ride on the back of a rocket to the edge of space, where it would separate and scream through the atmosphere at 13,000 mph before splashing into the Pacific Ocean, about 4,100 miles and 30 minutes later.

If the flight worked, it’d show how missiles of this shape and flight pattern could strike targets halfway around the world almost instantly. And that would be a major step forward in the Pentagon’s “Prompt Global Strike” plan to attack foes anywhere on the globe in less than an hour. For now, however, those hopes have been dashed.

“There’s no way you can call it a success. Let’s be blunt about it,” a source familiar with the program tells Danger Room.

more
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/mach-20-missile-lost-again/

No money, mo money, mo money!

[sakabatou]

1. More waste of money

[amerikat]

2. Is this a way around some ICBM treaty?

I don't get the point of this weapon. Can't ICBMs already hit any place on earth
within an hour?

[TheMadMonk]

7. More to convince "enemies" that it is not a nuke armed ICBM.

And thus not to retaliate with their own.

At least that's what it says on the packet.

Since it's big enough to carry nukes itself, I'm not exactly sure how that's supposed to work.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Isn't it slightly dangerous to have these things whizzing around god-knows-where at Mach 20?

I mean, I'm not an aviation expert, but what happens if/when it gets below 70,000 feet and enters commercial airspace? :shrug:

[Sherman A1]

4. Well, that has to be embarrassing

oooppps!

[rrneck]

5. It's probably already on ebay. nt

[RKP5637]

6. Yeah! Slightly used, only used once! No returns! LOL n/t

[Igel]

8. If at first you don't succeed,

I guess the American thing to do is give up.

Well, in this case they tried it twice.

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" has to be revised to at most "If at first you don't succeed, try again then pack it in."

[petronius]

9. It was half a success, anyway. It was supposed to crash in the ocean, and it did

:patriot:

(Unless it hit China, of course...)