David Wright, Cameron L. Tracy, "Hypersonic Cruise Missiles," Science & Global Security 32, no. 1-3 (2024)
This paper analyzes hypersonic cruise missiles (HCMs) powered by hydrocarbon-fueled scramjets and compares their capabilities to other systems that might perform the same missions, including hypersonic boost-glide vehicles (BGVs) and maneuverable reentry vehicles (MaRVs). Most analysis of hypersonic weapon capabilities has focused on BGVs, while HCMs are a distinct technology with distinct characteristics. We analytically model the X-51A HCM vehicle that the United States flight tested in 2010-13 and use that model as a basis for assessing the potential performance of near-term HCMs for military use. We find that these HCMs can have lower masses than BGVs of the same maximum range, but significantly higher masses than MaRVs of the same range. Because these HCMs use hydrocarbon fuels, they are limited to flying at low hypersonic speeds relative to BGVs and MaRVs, giving them longer flight times than those systems over the same range and making them vulnerable to interception by terminal missile defenses. We find that HCMs can be more maneuverable than BGVs during the atmospheric portion of their flight, though less maneuverable than supersonic cruise missiles.
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