US Global Punch

Global Punch
Pentagon Dreams of Super-Fast Bomber: ‘Two Hours to Any Target’

July 11— Who needs friends when you can have hypersonic bombers that can zip across the globe at up to 10 times the speed of sound?

The U.S. military’s research wing is seeking to develop a new generation of unmanned aircraft able to blow up terrorist camps or other targets anywhere in the world, without relying on overseas bases or slow-moving manned warplanes.

“It’s a wonder weapon,” said John Pike, a defense analyst at Globalsecurity.org, a military think tank.

‘Two Hours From Any Target’

The Pentagon hopes to have a version of the super-fast drone aircraft up and running in less than a decade. If the craft works as planned, it will be able to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than two hours, and many targets could be hit even faster.

“In a matter of hours — sometimes in a matter of minutes — any target in the world can be struck,” said ABCNEWS military consultant Anthony Cordesman.

The project is only just getting under way, however, with the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency soliciting proposals in June.

Avoiding Relying on Overseas Bases

The unmanned drones could help address a nagging problem for the U.S. military: the need for overseas bases located near potential hot spots.

“There’s a lot of interest in reducing reliance on overseas military bases,” said Michael Levy, a defense and security expert at the Brookings Institution.

Stationing U.S. bombers around the globe is expensive and politically contentious. U.S. forces stationed overseas can also be tempting targets for terrorists or other foes. U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and elsewhere have come under terrorist attack in recent years.

It has also often proven difficult to persuade other countries to allow U.S. forces to stage airstrikes from their soil.

As tensions flared with North Korea over the nation’s nuclear weapons program, for example, the United States put its bombers on alert in Guam. Allies in the region such as South Korea and Japan have taken a softer line over the problem, and would be unlikely to let U.S. forces stage an attack from their soil.

“It goes to a question of what happens if we find ourselves 10 years from now armed and alone,” said Pike.

Super-fast bombers would also give the Pentagon more flexibility. Military planners could call off an attack without having to pull back ships and bombers.

The weapons would be particularly useful in the war against terrorism, said Cordesman.

“There are a large number of targets for terrorist movements … scattered throughout the world where you are not always going to want to project bombers or ships to launch cruise missiles,” he said.

Even if they were hiding in remote corners of the world, terrorist leaders would be on the defensive if they knew they could be hit within minutes of being spotted by U.S. intelligence.

“It is going to deter terrorist groups,” said Cordesman.

Two Decades Away

Development of the Falcon — an acronym for Force Application and Launch from CONUS (short for “continental United States”) — is only in the earliest stages.

The first stage of production, scheduled to fly in 2010, would be the “Common Aero Vehicle.” The CAV would be carried into space by a rocket, then use gravity to zoom back to Earth at high speed and detonate when it strikes its target.

A later stage of the project — the Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle — would take off and land like a conventional plane, and is slated to be completed by 2025.

The plane-like HCV would realize the Pentagon’s goal of an “ultimate prompt global reach capability,” according to the project announcement from DARPA. Officials hope it will travel at nearly 10 times the speed of sound and carry a large payload — possibly several “Common Aero Vehicles.”

Falcon’s speeds represent an enormous improvement over current technology. During the Iraq war, aging B-52 bombers flew more than 100 missions from a base in England, each one taking about 44 hours to complete.

No Substitute for Ground Troops, However

But even if Falcon meets expectations, it won’t be able to win a war single-handedly. It is likely to be too expensive, at least at first, to use mass quantities, and bombers won’t replace ground troops or the need for local intelligence to help identify targets.

It is also difficult to know what technology will be available to potential U.S. enemies in the future. In a decade, some so-called rogue nations might acquire the means to shoot down U.S. aircraft, said Cordesman.

“I think we always have to remember that there aren’t any magic solutions to the problems we face around the world,” he said.

It is also far from clear if Falcon can be designed and built according to the Pentagon’s timetable. Hypersonic aircraft have bedeviled generations of engineers.

“They’ve been trying to get this to work for about six decades,” Pike said.

According to Jane’s Defense Weekly, the first flight demonstration is scheduled for 2006.

abcnews.go.com/sections/s…30711.html