On July 14, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released photos and videos, announcing that they successfully conducted the first test of the "OpFires" medium-range hypersonic missile system at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Live-fire flight testing. The launch photos released during this test show for the first time the live-fire appearance of the "Combat Firepower" missile and the configuration of the missile, which is similar to the appearance in the design imagination of Lockheed Martin's . The launch vehicle directly uses the navy. Logistics truck modification for marine .
Picture: The moment when the Combat Firepower missile comes out of the barrel
Picture: The CG picture of the Combat Firepower missile previously released by Lockheed Martin
Picture: The CG picture of the launch of the Combat Firepower missile originally announced by Lockheed Martin
This "Combat Firepower" missile project has always been It is considered to be the "spare tire" of the U.S. Army 's LRHW medium-range hypersonic missile project. It is mainly a back-up preparation to prevent the LRHW project from being difficult to produce or changing. Therefore, in terms of design and equipment use, it emphasizes the use of existing Mature designs or technical achievements reduce design difficulty while saving time and money. For example, in terms of missile design, Lockheed Martin directly took the AGM-183A air-launched hypersonic missile they designed for the U.S. Air Force and used it as the second stage of the missile, and then coupled it with a controllable thrust first stage. That's it for the first stage rocket booster. The entire project actually took about 2 years from the release of CG images, to the test of the booster rocket, and finally to the first live-fire flight test.
Picture: The U.S. Army’s LRHW superb missile launch imagination
Picture: The combat fire missile adopts a two-stage configuration, and the second stage uses the results of the AGM-183A
Picture: The second stage of the combat fire missile uses the U.S. Air Force’s AGM-183A air-launched superb technical achievements
However, the test of AGM-183A in the US Air Force was very unsatisfactory. The two tests in July and December 2021 failed one after another. It was not until May 14 this year that the first test was successful. The speed of the missile is said to be around Mach 5, which just crosses the superb threshold. The combat firepower missile uses AGM-183A as the second stage and uses the controllable thrust rocket booster to accelerate. It is said to be able to accelerate the gliding body to about Mach 8, and the missile's range is expected to be 1,600 kilometers. about.
In terms of missile launch vehicle and supporting systems, the combat fire missile system adopts the approach of not designing a dedicated launch vehicle. It requires integrating the missile launch tube and erecting mechanism into a module that can be quickly retrofitted to the existing heavy-duty trucks used by the U.S. Army and Marines for logistics support. At the same time, the US military also requires that the entire launch system should not require special maintenance or support equipment as much as possible, and should be able to use existing logistics maintenance equipment to support its support. The fire control system of the missile launch vehicle also needs to be modified with a proven and mature system, such as using the Seamus rocket launcher fire control system to achieve compatibility and interoperability with the U.S. Army's advanced field artillery tactical data system. operate.
Judging from the design requirements and test information disclosed and displayed by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. military’s combat fire missile project is following a route of “seeking speed, seeking stability, seeking simplification, and seeking to save money.” Use what is readily available if you can, simplify what can be simplified, compress the project time and save costs as much as possible, in order to provide the US military with a land-based medium-range advanced weapon as quickly and safely as possible. This is actually understandable. After all, due to the restrictions imposed by the "Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty" for many years, they are still blank in equipment for the medium-range ballistic missile . They are also lagging behind in the development and delivery of superb missiles, so they are very anxious. certain. From the perspective of the range of combat fire missiles, after the system is put into service in the future, Japan will definitely be prioritized for deployment in order to maximize deterrence. This is something we need to pay attention to.
