Russian 'Super-Holding' to Build Hypersonic Missile -Rogozin

Russia will set up an aerospace "super-holding" company consisting of missile makers NPO Mashinostroyenie and Tactical Missiles Corporation to develop hypersonic weapon technology, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday.

"Initially, we are talking about a big 'super-holding' based on Tactical Missiles Corporation and NPO Mashinostroyenie," said Rogozin, who oversees Russia's military-industrial complex.

Discussions on the creation of such a super-holding have been underway at least six months, Rogozin said.

"We have found an acceptable solution on how to form this super-holding," he said. "The main idea for this holding is hypersonic technology."

Development of hypersonic weapons - meaning those capable of flying at several times the speed of sound, generally with scramjet engines - has been a pet theme of Rogozin.

In May, during a visit to Tactical Missiles Corporation's NPO Raduga missile design bureau, Rogozin called on Russia's defense industry to develop hypersonic air-breathing weapons as a future strike system.

He picked out American development work in the X-51, Falcon, HiFire and HyFly programs as examples of what he described as the perspective threat posed by U.S. hypersonic development work.

"The undertaking of this work allows us to lay the basis for the creation of a national competitor in hypersonic weapons," he said.

He has since frequently repeated his call for hypersonic weapons to be developed as a replacement for the Russian Air Force's existing long-range bomber fleet.

"I think we need to go down the route of hypersonic technology and we are moving in that direction and are not falling behind the Americans," he said on Rossiya 24 TV in August. "We will use this technology when developing a new bomber."

"The question is whether we will copy the Americans' forty-year experience and create a [Northrop] B-2 analog...or will we go down a new, ultramodern technology route, looking to the horizon, and create a machine able to penetrate air defenses and carry out a strike on any aggressor," he added.

Aerospace analysts contacted by RIA Novosti say hypersonic technology is more likely to be relevant to an air-launched weapon itself, rather than a manned aircraft.

Tactical Missiles Corporation, based in Korolyov, Moscow Region, was formed in 2002 by amalgamating a number of defense design and production enterprises, of which the main ones were Korolyov-based Zvezda-Strela (tactical air-to-surface missiles), Moscow-based Vympel (tactical air-to-air missiles), NPO Raduga (cruise missile design), and Region (tactical air-launched weapons).

NPO Mashinostroyenie, based at Reutov just east of Moscow, has designed and produced most of the Russian Navy's submarine-launched cruise missiles as well as satellites and other space systems, and has previously conducted extensive research into hypersonic weapons technology, including making a prototype hypersonic air-launched missile called GELA.

NPO Mashinostroyenie is also the Russian partner in the BrahMos joint venture with India to develop the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, based on the Russian 3M55 Oniks. BrahMos has said it is developing a hypersonic successor system to its existing supersonic missiles in partnership with India.

Third X-51A Hypersonic Test Targeted For Mid-August

U.S. Air Force officials say the third, and possibly final, attempt to reach or exceed sustained speeds beyond Mach 5 with the X-51A hypersonic demonstrator is set for Aug. 14.

Describing the X-51A as “the key to the next step in hypersonics,” Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Director Doug Bowers says that even the mixed success of the initial X-51A flights has proved invaluable to advancing the state-of-the-art. Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Joint Propulsion Conference earlier this week, Bowers said, “The first X-51 was mostly a success, the second flight was a hung store [failed to release from the B-2 mothership] and on the third the inlet started but un-started. Every flight test we’ve had has been a learning opportunity, and until we took it to flight we really didn’t know the unknowns.”

The latest X-51A includes a series of hardware and software changes to counter issues that are thought to have brought the last flight to a premature end after only 9.5 sec. of powered flight at around Mach 5. The second flight, on June 13, 2011, ended when the vehicle’s Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJX61-2 engine failed to transition from ethylene fuel to JP-7. The ethylene is used to start the scramjet, while JP-7 is used for sustained flight.

Designed to demonstrate technologies for sustained, air-breathing hypersonic flight up to Mach 6.5, the first flight of the X-51 on May 25, 2010, reached Mach 4.88. Although the first X-51A did not reach Mach 5, the test was considered a technical success as some 143 sec. of the vehicle’s 210 sec. of total powered flight time was under scramjet power, making the flight 11 times longer than any previous air-breathing flight with a scramjet. A fourth X-51A is close to completion at Boeing’s Palmdale, Calif., facilities, but is currently not funded for flight testing.

Indo-Russia hypersonic BrahMos 2 missile to be ready by 2017

The first prototype of the hypersonic BrahMos 2 cruise missile being jointly developed by Russia and India will be ready for flight testing in 2017, an official said.

Russia and India have recently agreed to develop hypersonic BrahMos 2 missile capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5-Mach 7.

"I think we will need about five years to develop the first fully-functional prototype(of the hypersonic missile. We have already carried out a series of lab tests at the speed of 6.5 Mach," said Sivathanu Pillai, chief executive officer of the Russian-Indian joint venture Brahmos Aerospace.

Pillai said the new missile will be made in three variants- ground-launched, airborne, and sea-launched.

He said the new missiles will be supplied only to India and Russia, without exports to third countries.

Established in 1998, BrahMos Aerospace Ltd, a Russian-Indian joint venture, currently manufactures BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles based on the Russian-designed NPO Mashinostroyenie 3M55 Yakhont(SS-N-26).

The BrahMos missile has a range of 290 km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg. It can effectively engage targets from an altitude as low as 10 metres and has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

Sea and ground-launched versions have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and Navy.

The flight tests of the airborne version will be completed by the end of 2012.

The Indian Air Force is planning to arm 40 Su-30MKI Flanker-H fighters with BrahMos missiles.