Forum: General F-35 Forum

Air Force Wants Hypersonic Missiles for Stealth Jets By Robert Beckhusen June 7, 2012

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06 ... -missiles/

"...Air Force is taking a bigger role by seeking to build another hypersonic missile, this time for its stealth fighter jets.

The Air Force’s desired “High Speed Strike Weapon” would travel at five times the speed of sound or faster, theoretically launching from a stealthy F-22 Raptor jet or a future F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and traveling so fast and at such long distances as to render an enemy’s anti-aircraft systems defunct. The Air Force’s Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate is gathering possible design partners later this month at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida before any solicitation. According to an Air Force notice, whatever prototype gets built will ultimately need to strike “time-critical” targets — on the move, possibly — from “tactically relevant standoff distances.”

If it can be done, the weapon will “be representative of an air-breathing hypersonic missile system” that can tough it out in “the most stringent environments presented to us in the next decade,” said Steven Walker, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for science, technology and engineering, in written testimony to the House Armed Services Committee in February.

That’s the hope, at least. The U.S. military has a mixed record with hypersonics..."

Much more - not relevant to F-35 perhaps - at the jump?

F-16.net Sponsor

SM-2MR
Weight 1,558 lb (707 kg)
Length 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m)
Diameter 13.5 in (340 mm)
Speed Mach 3.5
range 40 to 90 nmi ( 170 km)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIM-66_Standard
seem both smaller and lighter than JASSM if they modify this missile to be carried externally by F-22 and F-35 , changing the seeker then it would be so dam cool