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| Boeing X-51 Waverider is typical HCM (Hypersonic Cruise Missile) candidate (Picture 1) |
Kimmo Huosionmaa
Hypersonic missiles are the fastest man-made cruise missiles in the world. The function of those weapons is normally, that ballistic missile would take those weapons to the ballistic trajectory, what allows enough speed, that the hypersonic ramjets would be launched, and those motors would give this missile the speed of Mach 12. But there are many problems with those missiles and USAF X-51 "Waverider" failed, and it couldn't start it hydrogen scramjet-motors in 2012.
The hypersonic cruise missiles are new kind of weapon, what is extremely dangerous even without the nuclear warhead. The kinetic energy of those missiles is extremely high, and if that thing hits any target, would the result be devastating. Also, the defense against those weapons is extremely difficult because the angle of incoming missiles is so variable. The nuclear warhead is of course very devastating things, but the hypersonic missiles are devastating without explosives.
Many states have the similar projects, and the most devastating version of those missiles is the nuclear-powered missile, where the burning process of fuel has been replaced with the nuclear reactor. This missile has extremely high speed and because of its big size, this weapon can cause more destruction than any existed weapon ever before. The hypersonic speed allows using the pressure blast of those weapons as a weapon.
The hypersonic flight allows to use the pressure spire as the weapon, what might make the track anywhere this weapon flies. That would give this devastating cruise missile extreme devastating capacity. The big size nuclear-powered missile can use hydrogen or water as the fuel. In this solution, the fuel would be injected into the reactor, what would give very powerful specific impulse. This kind of nuclear ramjet is not very sharp about the propellant, and the idea of this motor is, that the propellant and high speed would also cool the reactor, while this missile will travel across the airspace.
But the problem of those weapons is radioactive fallout. The radiation of the reactor would change the material, what travels thru the reactor also radioactive. That's the very bad problem with nuclear-powered aircraft. In the Cold War were many projects, where were investigated the use of nuclear power in many roles like in automobiles and aircraft. The best way to use nuclear reactors in aircraft is to use closed-cycle reactors, where the reactor would use to rotate the turbines. And the propellant would be heated by using electric arc. This would not deliver radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. But this is the only rumor and those test planes are highly classified.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_aircraft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95LAL
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/hypersonic-weapons-fit-future-war/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Timberwind
http://knkx.org/post/hypersonic-waverider-failed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-51_Waverider
Picture 1:
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