DARPA 'Glide Breaker’: Hypersonic interceptor developed to blast missiles out of the sky
DARPA is working with Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop a "hypersonic defense interceptor" dubbed Glide Breaker, it has been announced.
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Aerojet Rocketdyne is working on cutting-edge tech capable of taking-out high-speed manoeuvrable vehicles, under a new contract from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA has been developing a “hypersonic defense interceptor” system called Glide Breaker since 2018.
This is designed to intercept threatening vehicles moving at hypersonic speeds, meaning, at Mach 5 and above.
Advancing hypersonic technology is a national security imperative
Rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne will develop “enabling technologies” for Glide Breaker under the newly-announced contract, reportedly worth up to $19.6 million (£15 million).
Eileen Drake, Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and president, said in a statement: “Advancing hypersonic technology is a national security imperative.
“Our team is proud to apply our decades of experience developing hypersonic and missile propulsion technologies to the Glide Breaker program.”
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Based on the images available on DARPA’s Glide Breaker site, the technology will likely involve launching missiles to intercept hypersonic vehicles in flight.
No other information about the program, however, is available on the site.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has other contracts with DARPA to illustrate the company’s expertise in hypersonic flight.
These use either solid-fuel propulsion or “air-breathing” engines – typically, gas turbine engines.
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Both of these technologies were used in the X-51A WaveRider, a vehicle developed by DARPA, the US Air Force and space agency NASA that made the longest-ever hypersonic flight for a vehicle of its kind in May 2013.
Aerojet Rocketdyne also did propulsion system test firings for a future ground-launched hypersonic missile, under DARPA’s Operational Fires program.
Developing technologies able of intepcting incoming missiles or other fast-moving vehicles out of the sky is a priority for armies around the world.
The US has worked on numerous such ideas over the years, some of which never got off the ground.
One of the most famous mothballed concepts was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a complex, space-based system championed by President Ronald Reagan ridiculed by opponents as “Star Wars.”