Military loses contact with hypersonic test plane

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An unmanned experimental aircraft designed to glide down from the upper atmosphere at 20 times the speed of sound lost contact with ground control on its second test flight on Thursday, a Pentagon agency said.

The Falcon HTV-2 was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a rocket and successfully separated from the launch vehicle, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said.

The arrowhead-shaped plane was expected to separate from the rocket near the peak of its ascent and glide back to earth, reaching hypersonic speed before rolling and plunging into the Pacific ocean, according to a test diagram posted online.

About 10 minutes after the flight began, DARPA tweeted that the mission was "on track, entering glide phase." But about 26 minutes later, DARPA tweeted that its monitoring stations had lost contact with the glider.

"Downrange assets did not reacquire tracking or telemetry," DARPA tweeted about an hour later. "HTV-2 has an autonomous flight termination capacity."

The loss of communications in the final stages of the test flight was a failure for the agency. During the initial flight test in April, researchers lost contact with the vehicle about nine minutes into the flight.

The Falcon HTV-2 glider is part of the Defense Department's effort to build what it calls a "prompt global strike" capability that would enable it to hit targets worldwide within an hour with conventional or nuclear warheads.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

Comments

[aloe18]

10:21 PM on 08/14/2011

"capability that would enable it to hit targets worldwide within an hour with conventional or nuclear warheads"

Capable of hitting targets with nuclear warheads?? And it gets lost during the test? hmmm, I say I hope they don't approve this for another 50 years when I am dead, so I don't have to worry about a nuclear warhead getting lost and missing its target.

[ninersscore]

12:09 PM on 08/12/2011

To Big to Fail. Some Indian scientists using Chinese equipment.Put this stuff on the shelf. Take away the checkbook.And quit diverting attention.We are broke. Spending to much money in foreign cess pools. Cut government in Washington in half. The military complex is bloated and a joke. Government ask yourself before youi spend.DO WE NEED IT?

[kagu632418]

10:36 AM on 08/12/2011

There goes Tax Payers hard earned money.... But than who knows - could have been extraterrestials being fed up with all the junk we dump in the atmosphere.. Probably ET's daddy got a hold of the aircraft .. Government: "Never give up since the funding does not come out of our pockets"

[usapaydirt]

10:07 AM on 08/12/2011

See this is what happens when you outsource your control systems to China--!! fail, fail ,fail-!!! Any way once the remaining 39% of our jobs are lost, what's there to protect-!!

[duey35]

09:57 AM on 08/12/2011

Do we need a SS glider to deliver bombs?

[J- A]

01:35 AM on 08/12/2011

Maybe if the folks at DARPA were watching the telemetry instead of tweeting...oh forget it.

[J- A]

01:33 AM on 08/12/2011

So thats what landed in my back yard.

[hackitoff]

12:22 AM on 08/12/2011

Probably burned up on reentry due to some failure of its heat shield.

[rtc22209]

08:11 AM on 08/12/2011

This would never have happened to Captain Kirk.

[hackitoff]

12:11 AM on 08/12/2011

Submarine launched cruise missles are slower, but they are also closer to the target. So couldn't they hit the target in less than an hour. True they are not supersonic (as of yet) and therefore are now, more vulnerable to being shot down. But I would bet you anything, the US is working on supersonic, if not hypersonic, versions of these weapons. Seems like a duplication of effort and overkill.

[hackitoff]

12:02 AM on 08/12/2011

Aren't our ICBM's and SLBM faster - less than an hour from launch to impact.

[bamberg77]

10:56 AM on 08/12/2011

Those missles are bound by SALT to be controlled, this techonolgy would not.

[ninersscore]

12:13 PM on 08/12/2011

What treaties keep roadside bombs off the road? We have them use them.

[joannevlavender]

11:40 PM on 08/11/2011

If it came down at 20 times the speed of sound and wasn't able to be tracked, it might very well have nose-dived into the desert.

I've tried A; I've tried B; I've tried C.

Well, now, shut up and die like an aviator. Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff

[ecurbwl]

11:17 PM on 08/11/2011

Looks like this plane has paralled many 401K retirement acccounts. They are now missing and cannot be found.

[mikiebagles]

11:12 PM on 08/11/2011

people dont have money to buy food for there kids and these idiots loose a jet rocket .give me a break

[finallylegal]

04:44 AM on 08/12/2011

here's your break; the word "loose" means not tight, the word "lose" means to misplace or not win.

[mikiebagles]

10:37 PM on 08/19/2011

how about you shove it where the sun dont shine. you rude as$ho*e

[bluntobject]

12:08 AM on 08/22/2011

Talk about rude?? Your wrote the book on that W.T. I guess you know where you can shove that Babble of yours?

[mikiebagles]

11:10 PM on 08/11/2011

more money out the window.dont they get it are they deaf.

[fd909]

10:15 PM on 08/11/2011

Why is it that everyone says that our government tells nothing but lies, but when they say that a test failed, everyone accepts this as the truth?