United States and Norway join forces to develop new hypersonic missiles

Thanks to Bjørnar for the link!

via .tu.no

In this arms race, the United States has several times publicly admitted that they are behind. One of the tools to get back on the offensive is a new development project together with Norway.

It is the US Department of Defense that on Monday announced the bilateral cooperation called THOR-ER ("Tactical High-Speed ​​Offensive Ramjet for Extended Range").

FFI and Nammo

The Pentagon report states that the goal of Thor-ER is to develop missile prototypes with ramjet engines where they keep costs down while achieving high speeds and wide ranges. This should culminate in flight testing of the air breathing missiles in operationally relevant conditions.

The project is part of the "Allied Prototyping Initiative", launched last year, which paves the way for the United States to work with its closest allies on research and development to develop cutting-edge weapons technology in a fast and efficient way.

In this case, it has thus resulted in the special that they team up with an ally to develop new engine technology.

Among the players we find on the US side the US Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center, the Weapons Division China Lake in California and on the Norwegian side the Defense Research Institute (FFI) and the industrial partner Nammo. Not many missiles have been developed in China Lake over the years, such as Tomahawk and Sidewinder.

"Together with our Norwegian partners, this is an important step in developing the technologies needed to ensure that we and our allies are militarily superior in hypersonic systems," said Dr. Michael Griffin, Under Secretary for Research and Engineering , would say a kind of technology manager in the US Department of Defense.

Material Director Morten Tiller of the Norwegian Ministry of Defense said in the same report that he has great faith in this agreement. Both because the result can be pioneering capabilities for the Armed Forces, but also because the bilateral cooperation itself is pioneering.

Here.