b'Partner News Winter 2022 15EnterpriseImagine a bowler in cricket who has tohypersonic speed (above Mach 5) and atSpeed will improve reaction times for roles deliver a ball from point A to a batter at pointhigh altitude, would be almost impossiblelike air defence interceptors or ground attack B. The faster the ball is moving, the less timeto track and hit, even with the mostclose air support. However, the aerodynamic the batter has to react and therefore thesophisticated air systems in service todayrealities required to achieve hypersonic harder it is to hit. Translated into aerospaceand in the near future. speeds would severely limit the effectiveness applications, this makes a hypersonic aircraftof the aircraft in its intended role once it or missile very difficult to shoot down. What would a hypersonic aircraftreached its target. The survivability that actually do? high speed would give you could be really If everything in stealth, whats the worry?No SR-71 was ever shot down, howevervaluable in a Wild Weasel suppression Stealth is an often misunderstood term12 of the 32 made were lost in non- of enemy air defence role, but would a when it comes to combat aircraft. Therescombat accidents. The aircraft was hugelyhypersonic aircraft be better than a swarm of no single definition or feature that makesexpensive to build and maintain, and camecheap, attritable drones?something stealth. Its more a collectionfrom an era before the wide use of satellites of technologies and tactics that whenfor reconnaissance. In its heyday it providedAir Vice-Marshal Linc Taylor, the RAFs Chief of combined, attempt to stop an aircraft beinginvaluable intelligence, but it was ultimatelyStaff Air Capability, recently said: The UK has detected by radar.replaced by drones and satellites that weresome novel technologies that could allow it do cheaper and offered more time over thethings differently to those seen elsewhere in Radar works by shooting electromagnetictarget. So, the question must be asked,the world, and at much lower cost. One of the energy at a target and measuring the waveswhat would a hypersonic aircraft actuallythings we believe will have value in our future which bounce back. Reducing the amount ofprovide? way of war fighting, changing the way we energy that bounces off an aircraft makes itfight, is in reusable hypersonics. harder to detect by radar.While the US, Russia and China are all at various stages of developing hypersonicAt the moment were exploring the The misconception is that stealth makesmissiles, the UK announced developmenttechnologies. If they do come to fruition, we aircraft like the F-22 and F-35 invisible toof a hypersonic unmanned air vehicle thatwill then go, Okay, this does have utility, we radar at any range, this is understandablecould deliver payloads at great distance andhave the evidence behind it, and then well given how effective they are in reducingthen return to be used again. develop it. One of the things were looking the energy that they return to the source,at is how can we do this for a fraction of the but they still return some energy. In theEd Gower, who leads the HVX programmecost that our adversaries might spend in this past, that small amount of energy may haveat Reaction Engines told the BBC: Whatarea.been indistinguishable from the backgroundwere doing here is not a missile; its noise, but if you got too close you wouldsomething that is able to return sub- For the UK, cost is key, but as with other still be detected.sonically. Because of that, it will need toareas it really seems like the MoD, DSTL operate at high speed and low speed, whichand the RAF RCO have a new approach to Over the last decade, radar systems haveis obviously what distinguishes it fromtechnology development, all of which means improved vastly, increasing the range atsomething like a ramjet on a missile. an exciting time for the UK aerospace sector.which even stealth aircraft can be detected. These improvements are chipping away at the advantage those platforms hold, and there are many that are worried that soon stealth alone will not be enough to keep an aircraft safe. The SR-72 in the film, Top Gun: Maverick, exists only in Hollywood, but its co-creators, Lockheed Martins Skunk Works published a near identical concept in 2016, and developed the iconic SR-71 blackbird in the 1960s.The SR-71 is a very important example in understanding the current interest in hypersonics. Over its service life, the SR-71 Blackbird reportedly outran over 4,000 missiles fired at it by enemy air defence systems, without losing a single aircraft in combat.The modern hypersonic train of thought then follows that targeting and hitting a highly manoeuvrable aircraft, travelling at'