NASA's new AI technology for hypersonic missile: Will it change warfare?

According to reports, NASA is working on creating a new hypersonic missile which can optimise missiles for maximum range and destruction. The technology allows the AI component to use the result of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) to work around a design of a scramjet missile.

As a result, the hypersonic missile would be faster with a longer range than any missile produced by other nations.

According to technology writer Will Lockett hypersonic missiles travel at over Mach 5 speed. Lockett explains: "Scramjet stands for supersonic combustion ramjet, and they work in exactly the same way as a jet on a plane, except with no moving parts."

The US recently tested the DARPA HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept), Lockett informs. He says the scramjet hypersonic missile is set to be next-generation technology which the US is working on.

NASA's AI can therefore design a hypersonic missile that is far faster and with greater range.

Amid the Ukraine war, the US military said it has tested a new hypersonic missile. The US conducted an aircraft-launched hypersonic missile test. The missile maintained a speed of more than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Hypersonic missiles pose a potential threat to the global military balance. They can deliver nuclear weapons precisely on target at speeds too fast to intercept.

Weapons travelling at hypersonic speed allow attackers to overcome defence installations.

Russia, North Korea and China claim the top spot in the hypersonic missile race. Russia has touted the development of hypersonics in recent years. President Putin believes the weapons will give Russia an edge over the US.

Russia had claimed it had fired two hypersonic missiles on Ukraine.

Last year, China had stunned the world with a hypersonic missile test. The US was caught off-guard by the Chinese display. The US has so far struggled to put its hypersonic missile power in order.

And now it has conducted a new test. Also this week, the UK, US and Australia(AUKUS) agreed to work on hypersonics under a new defence pact.

Hypersonic weapons and air and missile defense are key priorities of the United States Department of Defense's National Defense Strategy

The Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) program matures critical technologies to high speed flight and accelerates the weaponization of Hypersonic strike capabilities, according to Lockheed Martin.

The hypersonic systems provide advantages in terms of speed to target, manoeuvrability and survivability to reach hard and well-defended targets.

At hypersonic speeds, friction and air resistance create an incredible amount of heat, which needs to be managed through tough but lightweight heat shields and thermal protection systems. Sensors and electronics must also be hardened to withstand extreme conditions, the company highlighted.

Hypersonic systems are designed to operate in contested environments and must be capable of overcoming a wide range of defenses with the system moving at a mile every second needs to operate with an incredible degree of precise maneuverability.

Basic operations like communications become a significant challenge during hypersonic flight. The system has to maintain connectivity to operators and decisionmakers through a global communications and sensor systems.

The missile was built with tactical hardware and instrumented to collect thermal, mechanical and digital data from the flight vehicle through a telemetry stream and an on-board data recorder.

US Air Force General Tod Wolters told lawmakers that the Russian military has launched "multiple" hypersonic weapons into Ukraine.

"There have been multiple launches. Most of them have been directed at military targets,” Wolters told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Russia said earlier declared that it has fired its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Ukraine destroying a fuel storage site in the country's south.

The Russian defence ministry had said it had killed more than 100 members of Ukrainian special forces and "foreign mercenaries" when it targeted a training centre in the town of Ovruch in northern Ukraine with sea-based missiles. 
 

The Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles were fired from airspace over Russian-controlled Crimea. Russia also launched the Kalibr cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea targeting the depot.

Russia in fact added that the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were used to destroy an underground missile and ammunition storage site in western Ukraine close to the border with NATO member Romania.

Russian analysts had said the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Deliatyn, a village in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, was the first combat use of such weapons in the world.

However, Tod Wolters clearly stated that "multiple launches" of the  hypersonic weapons have been carried out in Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said that it also used long-range precision weapons against other facilities in Ukraine.

Russia's use of the hard-to-intercept hypersonics was supposed to mark a dramatic escalation of its campaign to force Ukraine to abandon hopes of closer ties with the West.

With Putin and Russia under punitive Western sanctions, Moscow has reportedly asked China for military and economic aid for its war, a claim Beijing denies.

The Kinzhal missile was one of an array of new weapons Putin unveiled in his state-of-the-nation address in 2018.

Hypersonic missiles can be used to deliver conventional warheads, more rapidly and precisely than other missiles. But their capacity to deliver nuclear weapons could add to a country's threat, increasing the danger of a nuclear conflict.