AMERICA is planning to build a hypersonic bomber that can fly at 7,000mph in a top secret scheme dubbed “Project Mayhem”.
When Russia and China introduced their hypersonic weapons, the US seemed to be lagging behind – but the country’s Air Force has set their eyes on a bigger prize.
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The £260million project plans to build a bomber capable of high speeds that can confound enemy’s modern air defence.
And it won’t be a one-use weapon – the bomber can be refuelled and used over and over again.
Little is known about the secretive project, but the Air Force contract notice revealed that Mayhem is a “multi-mission” project dedicated to reconnaissance and strike.
The aircraft is expected to be able to carry two weapons as well as a hypersonic drone used for surveying enemy areas.
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The weapons are described in documents as “large unitary payload” and an “area effect” – which could be referring to missiles.
It reportedly will be able to travel through the air at 7,000mph – ten times the speed of sound.
The Mayhem will be powered by an “air-breathing” propulsion system, also known as a scramjet – an engine that compresses the air to a flammable pressure.
For such an engine to work, the aircraft needs to reach the speeds of over 2,000mph – which makes landing safely impossible.
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To overcome the challenge, the groundbreaking bomber will use a jet engine to surpass 2,000mph – before switching to a scramjet for hypersonic speeds.
If the Mayhem Project proves successful, it will allow US military to surpass enemy’s defence system practically undetected.
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The aircraft might conduct reconnaissance or drop missiles on targets before escaping enemy territory unscathed and returning home to refuel and repeat the mission again.
It poses a strategic advantage for the military – but combining a jet engine with a scramjet hasn’t been done successfully yet.
The Air Force has to figure out a way for conventional jet engine to work without obstructing the scramjet’s airflow or without making the aircraft too heavy.
When the aircraft soars at such incredible speeds, the shock waves produced at ultra-fast speeds can also heat up the hypersonic vehicle up to 1,000C.
To survive the journey, the bomber will need to be covered in materials that haven’t been invented yet.
The US Air Force awarded £260million to an engineering company Leidos to digitally design the aircraft in order to come up with a solution.
Frank Serna, from Draper – a company collaborating with Leidos – said in a statement: “A key element of developing hypersonics is implementation of model-based engineering as a cost-effective way to evaluate design concepts before proceeding to build a prototype.”
But the Mayhem programme might have run into another problem – with funding delaying the next step of the development.
Leidos reportedly hasn’t received the financial aid to complete the design which halted the whole project until funds are restored.
It is also rumoured that the US Air Force might have changed its course – possibly collaborating with Lockheed Martin’s SR-72.
Dubbed the “Son of Blackbird” the SR-72 plane is part of a top-secret mission by the US Air Force to improve their aviation abilities and rule the skies.
Despite the plane’s plans not technically having anything to do with the Pentagon, they were thought to be keeping a close eye on Lockheed Martin’s futuristic aircraft.
The SR-72 is reportedly going to be able to fire projectiles such as hypersonic weapons at a more impressive rate than anything before it.
It comes as the US could soon launch a weaponized hypersonic missile up into space to show off their impressive war arsenal to the world.
The formidable rocket can travel a whopping 15,000mph and is set to blast across the Pacific in the latest US Air Force tests trying to humble a desperate Vladimir Putin.
Rumours of the new high tech missile started when the Air Force revealed images of the menacing AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).
Currently China are the only known country to have an ARRW and the latest US development has left Russia scrambling to get one of their own.
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Pictures show the weapon, which can strike targets within 1,000 miles, being carried under the wing of a B-52H bomber aircraft at a popular US Air Force base in Guam.
The Pacific Island has been a key spot for new weapons tests in recent years.
