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Prospects Brighten for Army Hypersonic Weapon By Elaine M. Grossman WASHINGTON — A Capitol Hill conference committee this week earmarked more than $40 million in unrequested funds in the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill for a futuristic, fast-flying U.S. Army missile that might someday strike targets halfway around the world (see GSN, Nov. 7). Advanced Hypersonic Weapon proponents say it could be used to eliminate urgent targets — terrorist safe houses or rogue-nation weapons of mass destruction, for example — thousands of miles away as part of the Defense Department’s nascent “prompt global strike” mission. Such weapons must be capable of reaching their endpoints within 60 minutes of a launch order, according to Pentagon officials. Defense leaders say that the only munitions available today with sufficient range and speed for the mission carry nuclear warheads and are thus less likely to be used (see GSN, Oct. 22). Congressional budget negotiators agreed to support a Senate provision offering $41.7 million for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon. The House, in its version of the fiscal 2008 appropriations bill, provided no money for the missile. While the Army is the project’s official sponsor, it has never sought funds for the effort. “As a service, they have indicated that they’re not interested in fielding a new class of weapons, but they want to contribute to the technology,” Marine Corps “The real Army is just not interested in that mission,” one defense expert said early this year. “They’re not interested in putting their people on that mission. They’re worried about other things.” Instead, lawmakers have taken it on themselves to sustain the fledgling project managed at an Army program office in The new funding would more than quadruple the weapon’s previous budget and lays the groundwork for technology demonstrations crucial for its success, according to advocates. Likely the greatest challenge facing the program is developing a thermal protection technology capable of withstanding re-entry into the atmosphere at high speeds, according to defense experts. “You never know on technology, but they have some pretty good ideas about thermal management,” Cartwright said in February. “And so that’s what’s really attractive to us there.” In a move that might prove pivotal for the effort’s future prospects, the conferees opted to fund the project in an Army-only budget line item. By contrast, the bill lumps other prompt global strike weapons — including an Air Force Conventional Strike Missile and a Navy intermediate-range Submarine-Launched Global Strike Missile — into a new multiservice funding pot to be managed by the defense secretary’s staff (see GSN, Oct. 10 and Sept. 18). Had Congress alternatively opted to merge the hypersonic missile funding with the $100 million allocated to other service projects in the joint account, the Army program office might have lost some or its entire share of funds, observers said. “Once that money got into that central pot, the Army wouldn’t see any of it,” one hypersonic weapon advocate said this week, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is envisioned as an unmanned vehicle capable of boosting into space aboard a two-stage rocket, separating and gliding to a target up to 6,000 miles away in less than 35 minutes. The weapon could be fitted with a 900-pound penetrator warhead or 900 pounds of rods to impact at Mach 4 speed, according to the weapon’s backers. Initial deployments might begin as early as 2009, these officials say. However, skeptics counter that resolving the proposed system’s immense technological hurdles would require a heavy investment of dollars and time.
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