New crusie missile

I've come across a few pics of a new cruise missile..it looks weird..here i'll post the link it has a few pics..www.fas.org... its capable of carrying a nuclear payload

here i made the link clickable

Stealth cruise thats as big as a greyhound bus.

Hummm. Already in inventory and aging. 463 units a launch platform that might be retiring.

I think this weapon has been replaced by the hypersonic scramjet missile.

Originally posted by USAFSF
here i made the link clickable

I found a little bit of info on this cruise missle in my airman magazine.

Primary funciton: air-to-surface advanced cruise missle.
Payload: nuclear warhead.

Its a link to FAS.org..



Its not even a source for crap, they dont update / keep their pages functional..

originally posted by: robertfenix
Stealth cruise thats as big as a greyhound bus.

Hummm. Already in inventory and aging. 463 units a launch platform that might be retiring.

I think this weapon has been replaced by the hypersonic scramjet missile.

Although this thread is nearly 20 years old, the AGM-129 cruise missile discussed at the FAS link was stealthy and it had subsonic speed like the AGM-86. However, the AGM-129 was retired from service in April 2012 due to high maintenance costs.

Anyway, the USAF is currently flight-testing a hypersonic glide vehicle, the AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), which is designed to reach speeds of Mach 20, but also the scramjet-powered Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) for a hypersonic cruise missile. Boeing more than a decade ago tested the scramjet-powered X-51 technology demonstrator with the purpose of testing technologies for a scramjet-powered strike weapon, and the HAWC uses the kind of scramjet technology that was tested by the X-51 in 2010-2013.

Links:
web.archive.org...://www.tinker.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123299303
www.military.com...
www.af.mil...
www.darpa.mil...

a reply to: Potlatch
Why do you keep in digging up 20 year old threads?

originally posted by: Woody510
a reply to: Potlatch
Why do you keep in digging up 20 year old threads?

The AGM-129 missile discussed at the link posted in this thread actually first flew in the mid-1980s before being cleared for service in 1990, and the FAS webpage about the AGM-129 doesn't discuss in depth the early developmental history and testing of the AGM-129 (there is, however, detailed info on the AGM-129's development and testing mentioned in the display plaque for an AGM-129 on display at the USAF museum in one of the photos in the gallery for the AGM-129 at the FAS webpage). I wanted to provide info about the fact that the AGM-129 was retired in 2012, because when this thread was written, the AGM-129 had been in service for over a decade and the USAF felt confident that the AGM-129 would have a longer service life, but the high maintenance costs for the AGM-129 airframe were the reason the AGM-129 was phased out, similar to how the USAF chose to retire its F-117s from service in 2008 due to the high cost of maintaining the Nighthawk's multifaceted fuselage.

I wanted to resurrect this thread because at the time it was written, the technology to make a hypersonic cruise missile work had not yet been tested given that the X-51 was in development, and because the AGM-181 cruise missile is under development by Raytheon, although it's unclear if it is stealthy, while new hypersonic weapons are undergoing flight testing, including a scramjet-powered cruise missile.