Vintage Racer; or "Time to be spoonfed some more hypersonic goodness"

aviationweek.com...

twitter.com... outhfront.org%2Fu-s-successfully-tested-vintage-racer-hypersonic-loitering-weapon%2F

So the Pentagon has decided it's time to let a little more info out into the ether. Sure it was "Accidentally" released. Just like the army's new railroad gun and so many other programs.

So here's what we "know:" It's hypersonic, they specifically call it a projectile, they specifically focus on ingress rather than egress which suggests something to me, It's probably loaded with sensors which it uses to detect rough areas to look at then deploy loitering munitions/sensors (tacit rainbow anyone?) to pinpoint the targets.

Sounds like quite a way to solve the Mobile Missile problem.

I was wondering about the utility of a hypersonic program regarding the very quick overflight time. Even with the best sensors it can really only get a snapshot of the battlefield, while loitering platforms can get a longer view. Maybe this solves the problem. Need an area persistently surveiled/interdicted RIGHT NOW? Use Vintage Racer

I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts.

a reply to: hawkguy

Could they launch this from a satellite, an orbiting platform or something like that? Would make sense really.

a reply to: Jonjonj

I think a satellite might involve too much infrastructure. There's no reason why this can't use the Army's hypersonic booster that they've come up with.

a reply to: hawkguy

It uses submunitions more than sensors. It will have to have some sensor capability, but that will be more for target recognition and position than anything.

a reply to: Jonjonj

No. That would require some serious work that would be very difficult. There are a couple projects that would be interesting to see it mated up with though.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I imagine it #ting out submunitions like an A-5 Vigilante. How did they solve the shockwave interaction issues?

Oh nice, the next iteration of Minion/Minotaur/TopCover. This time it's hypersonics instead of LO.

Bitchen, what color do they come in ?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: hawkguy

It uses submunitions more than sensors. It will have to have some sensor capability, but that will be more for target recognition and position than anything.

From that briefing package, I would infer that they are talking about both sensors and munitions, probably in different vehicles. First a hypersonic glider arrives to the target area, having flown above and past all the air defenses, and places a loitering UAV above the area. The UAV has to have some endurance and is therefore probably subsonic. The UAV provides targeting information for the submunitions, which follow on the next wave of hypersonic gliders.

Am I missing something?

a reply to: 1947boomer

Yes, but it's not surprising considering all the information isn't out there. You're on the right track though.

a reply to: hawkguy

Very carefully. Heh.

a reply to: 1947boomer

Think about the sensor -fused bomblets in a CBU-97... Now give them the ability to upload sensor data to Starlink and battle management systems. Perhaps give them wings like a SDB or Switchblade instead of parachute deployment. Load several on a hypersonic missile theater missile with 400 mi or so range. Shoot them into heavily defended airspace, and suddenly, you have a much nicer picture of what is happening in that neighborhood, even if it's shot down...

This came out of the QRF, which basically was a lot like the AF Big Safari program for the DOD at large. One curiosity is that despite being handed over to the Army after a demo of maturity, the di-/trigraph with a "VI-" antecedent would historically denote a SPACECOM project...

a reply to: hawkguy

a reply to: Zaphod58

I understand, it was just with the article specifically mentioning ingress rather than egress I thought that perhaps the inference was inbound only rather than inbound/outbound or go/return. This made me think of some kind of from a distance attack thing that is one way rather than two way, hence the satellite thought.

Thanks chaps.

a reply to: Jonjonj

I can't remember the program name right now, but they were playing around with a system a few years ago that would dispense submunitions, then turn into a munition itself. This would be something similar. High speed ingress to get through any defenses, loiter and disperse its payload, then go after its own target.

a reply to: Jonjonj

To me it's kinda posturing regarding A2/AD system degredation. Saying to other states that if we want to ingress, we can ingress while simultaneously focusing on the fact that the platform is probably disposable and doesn't need to worry about egress

a reply to: Zaphod58

So like the Nammo thing with sub munitions?

Nammo

The world is weird, no idea if that could work but getting a hyper to stop/slow down is nuts, but how could it speed back up?

A special stage for special ordinance?

a reply to: hawkguy

I get the posturing idea but if I have understood one thing regarding the military in general, if they say they have it, they HAD it, disregarded it, and moved on.

originally posted by: RadioRobert
a reply to: 1947boomer

Think about the sensor -fused bomblets in a CBU-97... Now give them the ability to upload sensor data to Starlink and battle management systems. Perhaps give them wings like a SDB or Switchblade instead of parachute deployment. Load several on a hypersonic missile theater missile with 400 mi or so range. Shoot them into heavily defended airspace, and suddenly, you have a much nicer picture of what is happening in that neighborhood, even if it's shot down...

This came out of the QRF, which basically was a lot like the AF Big Safari program for the DOD at large. One curiosity is that despite being handed over to the Army after a demo of maturity, the di-/trigraph with a "VI-" antecedent would historically denote a SPACECOM project...

When Mike Griffin came in as DDR&E a few years ago, his absolute highest priority was to put the US hypersonics program into high gear to try to catch up and pass the Chinese, who have been outpacing the US for 10 or 15 years. Part of his strategy was to take all the little R&D programs scattered around the individual services, pick out the best ones, discard the bad ones, and take what was left and turn it into a fast-track integrated weapons system development program. Part of that process was to eliminate duplication by taking research programs that originated under one branch and making other branches use that technology. This sounds like it could be an example of that--started under SPACECOM and implemented under Army.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Not always. That's a fairly popular misconception.