The next generation
Defence ventures into the space age with hypersonics research

Volume 48, No. 22, November 30, 2006

WARP SPEED: The new multi-million dollar Hypersonics project is set to take ground-breaking research, such as the Hyshot supersonic scram jet (pictured above), even further. Photo by Chris Stacey, University of Queensland

From left, DSTO’s Dr Warren Harch and Dr Roger Lough join USAF’s Dr Mark Lewis and Mr Douglas Bowers to sign certificates commemorating the Hypersonics agreement in Canberra. Photo courtesy of DSTO

By Barry Rollings

THE signature statement that opens the science fiction television show Star Trek – “to boldly go where no man has gone before” – would double as an apt motto for the Australia-US collaboration on hypersonics research.

The announcement of the $US54 million agreement with the United States Air Force, one of the largest research projects DSTO has signed, was made in Canberra on November 10, bringing what might once have been regarded as science fiction into the realms of reality.

Hypersonics is the study of velocities greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5).

In his introduction to the launch, DSTO’s Chief Defence Scientist, Dr Roger Lough, described hypersonics as “one of those singularities – disruptive technologies like nuclear propulsion for ships etc. – which, when it arrives, will have such a significant impact on Defence that we probably can’t really understand what it will do just yet”.

“It will also have significant impact on the civil application, and these days what we are thinking about is international transport and, especially, access to space,” Dr Lough said.

The ADF was developing a network-enabled force, and its reliance on space was increasing for intelligence-gathering and communications.

“But, really, it is as the first cab off the rank as a missile application that excites most of us,” he said.

“I have looked forward to this for many years – to be able to get Mach 5, 8, 9 and 10 missiles into the field.”

Australia had an extensive team of experienced researchers in hypersonics and state-of-the art equipment for simulating up to 50 times the speed of sound, and it had a proud heritage in this research stretching back to the 1960s.

“Australian researchers demonstrated the world’s first successfully sustained in-flight supersonic combustion at a speed of more than Mach 8 during the 2003 Hyshot series of experiments at Woomera,” Dr Lough said.

“Ground-breaking research is set to continue in the coming years with the formalisation of the agreement today.”

Chief Scientist of USAF and Dr Lough’s co-signatory to the agreement, Dr Mark Lewis, said the historic significance went beyond the research and technology to its symbolism for Australia and the US and “various organisations within our two countries”.

Dr Lewis said the history of success in the air emphasised the value of collaboration, or in air parlance, the tactical and philosophical “value of the wingman”.

“The role of the wingman is to look after each other. The US has no greater wingman than Australia and we hope that Australia views us in the same light,” Dr Lewis said.

“When I talk about US-Australian relations with my colleagues in USAF leadership, the feeling of productivity and the strength of the relationship is really overwhelming; a shared sense of purpose.

“It is entirely appropriate that we come together in a research project. The charge for the joint team is all about flight – getting things in the air, into the reaches of space – and a willingness to take risks.

“We understand that any scientific endeavour that’s truly worth undertaking must incorporate some risk. I will go so far as to say that if we don’t fail occasionally we are not taking enough risks.”

Basic questions of physics still need to be answered and unknown frontiers needed to be resolved for the setting of benchmarks.

Dr Warren Harch from DSTO spoke about the capability, efficiency, simplicity and logistics of the project.

“We believe air-breathing hypersonic flight will give us a capability that will make hypersonic flight cheap, affordable and useful,” he said.

Its applications included weapons, low-cost space launches and high-speed cruisers with significant benefits in the form of ballistic missile defence, responsive space access and prompt global access.

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