In the last few months we’ve been hearing a lot about hypersonic aircraft and missiles. Well, on the heels of its ultra-fast upgrade to the venerable SR-71, Lockheed Martin has released a concept image for its own hypersonic missile. Named the High Speed Strike Weapon (HSSW), the blisteringly quick missile would travel at speed in excess of Mach 5, (6,150km/h, 3,840mph) giving it the ability to catch any craft outside of a space shuttle on re-entry.
According to Lockheed Martin, "The HSSW will enable a responsive strike capability on time-critical, heavily defended targets and achieves high survivability through altitude, speed and stealth."
Whether his device will ever make it to production is anyone’s guess. However, with increased interest in hypersonic weapon systems I wouldn’t bet against some type of hypersonic craft making out Lockheed’s SkunkWorks sometime soon.
Image Courtesy of Lockheed