Stewart Penney/WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB
The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is poised to release a request for study proposals from aircraft manufacturers for a Future Strike Vehicle (FSV).
The FSV - potentially a trans-atmospheric strike platform - would replace the Rockwell B-1B and the Northrop Grumman B-2 from around 2025, says Doug Dolvin, AFRL focus area manager for space access and future strike.
The 14-month study contracts will be issued to several airframe contractors, which will require propulsion companies and systems specialists in their teams. The studies will start at the end of this year.
Dolvin says industry will be expected to provide solutions, adding "We will tell them what we want, not how to do it."
FSV will provide global reach from the continental USA, says Dolvin. Ongoing trade-off studies are considering the balance between speed - FSV could be hypersonic - and stealth. Other studies have looked at the type of weapons to be employed by the vehicle.
Hypersonic speed will allow the FSV to reach anywhere worldwide within hours. The FSV could also be an exoatmospheric platform. The AFRL says new technologies will be considered to achieve this. "We are looking at plasma fields for high-speed vehicle propulsion," says Dolvin, adding that experimental, analytical and simulation work on plasma technologies has been performed. An X-vehicle technology demonstrator could be funded for 2005-6.
Investment at Wright-Patterson AFB includes $17.5 million to support FSV and the linked Space Operations Vehicle technology development. The funds are being used to create a facility to test structures of up to 3m (10ft) x 3m, large enough to test new engines, in high temperature/harsh acoustic environments. The facility will test components in an acoustic environment up to 175dB and 1,650íC (3,000íF). Dolvin says the combination is important to show effects not seen in single environments.
Source: Flight International
