the military race between the u.s and
russia is getting to new levels
especially with the european country's
recent aggression in ukraine for this
reason the u.s military cannot afford to
not out-innovate russia in the military
space one asset that the u.s has in the
race and russia wishes it has is elon
musk the billionaire industrialist has
been coming up with innovations that the
us military can incorporate into its
military asset one such asset is the
terrifying but secretive hypersonic
fighter jet that the us is developing
under project mayhem that would come in
handy against russia elon musk is a
versatile inventor and his genius
capability spans several products across
several industries for example he has
already left his mark on the ev industry
by being solely responsible for bringing
evs to the limelight and turning them
into vehicles that people just lust over
as a result his ev company tesla is the
biggest in its category shipping the
most electric cars for a single company
last year tesla is also the biggest
automobile company judging by its market
capitalization the military has been
following tesla's progress closely and
is now working on using one of the
company's strengths in its hardware
battery
the us air force has given a contract to
lockheed martin that will see laser
weapons mounted on fighter jets the
laser system needs an energy storage
solution and lockheed martin is turning
to the same lithium-ion batteries
powering evs thanks to innovations by
tesla ev lithium-ion batteries have
matured to the state that the us air
force will use them in its fighter jets
musk is also innovating in the space
industry and his company spacex has
quickly risen to the top of the pile
overtaking behemoths along the way it
regularly delivers payloads to the
international space station including
crew and cargo the only private company
to do so under the guidance of musk
spacex is developing the starship the
tallest and most powerful rocket ever
conceived even before the starship is
ready musk's spacex owns and operates
the most powerful rockets in action the
falcon 9 and the falcon heavy which he
uses to deliver payloads to orbit for
itself and other private customers as a
visionary musk looks forward to
colonizing mars this is when the
starship will really come alive making
numerous trips between the earth and the
red planet as it takes both cargo and
the settlers on interplanetary missions
meanwhile spacex's clients include the
us military and the company has been
cleared to deliver sensitive payloads to
orbit multiple times it has already
handled some launches for the u.s space
force to resounding success given the
relationship between musk and the us
military through his companies it is
little wonder that the billionaire ceo
wants to make a supersonic jet in a
tweet musk exclaimed he was dying to
make a supersonic jet however as the
boss of the biggest ev company musk is
going the battery-powered route by
making the jet electric it is easy to
imagine musk doesn't like the fossil
fuel powered private jet he uses and
would like to retire it as soon as
possible however musk's pals over at the
us air force are working on a secretive
hypersonic air vehicle program named
mayhem pentagon recently released some
details about this project that has kept
war analysts guessing for some time now
however before we get into all the juicy
details about the secretive mayhem
project what does a hypersonic flight
mean exactly let's take it from the
basics as an aircraft moves through the
air the air molecules near the aircraft
are disturbed and move around the
aircraft
exactly how the air reacts to the
aircraft depends on the ratio of the
aircraft's speed to the speed of sound
through the air because of the
importance of this speed ratio
aerodynamicists have designated it with
a special parameter called the mach
number in honor of ernest mack a late
19th century physicist who studied gas
dynamics for aircraft speeds that are
much greater than the speed of sound the
aircraft is said to be hypersonic
typical speeds for hypersonic aircraft
are greater than 3000 miles per hour and
mach number m greater than five why is
hypersonic aircraft the choice for
modern warfare according to brad leyland
former program manager for hypersonic at
lockheed martin's hypersonic aircraft
coupled with hypersonic missiles could
penetrate denied airspace and strike at
nearly any location across a continent
in less than an hour speed is the next
aviation achievement to counter emerging
threats in the next several decades the
mayhem program was previously officially
known as expendable hypersonic
multi-mission air breathing demonstrator
but that has now changed to hypersonic
multi-mission isr and strike however
mayhem is part of a larger air force
research lab effort known as enabling
technologies for high-speed operable
systems ethos what does the us air force
want to achieve with mayhem the aim is
to deliver a larger class air breathing
hypersonic system capable of executing
multiple missions with a standardized
payload interface providing significant
technological advancement and future
capability the system goal is to carry
payloads five times the mass and double
the range of current technology
capability systems the standardization
payload interface would create multiple
opportunities for various payload
integration within the same hypersonic
system due to the secretive nature of
mayhem no information is provided about
the current technology capability
systems that the program requirements
have been derived from in fact the
contract document says that this
requirement will be classified secret
possibly requiring top secret access at
later stages of the requirement but we
know mayhem has a programmed ceiling of
371 million dollars the mayhem air
vehicle will carry one of three payloads
including area effect payload a large
unitary payload and a responsive
intelligence surveillance and
reconnaissance or isr payload but what
payload exactly is the air force
interested in with mayhem we have put
together some possibilities that the air
force is talking about distinct area
effect and large unitary types strongly
suggests that the first one envisions a
payload of cluster munitions or
something similar such as a swarm of
small drones an advanced high explosive
fragmentation warhead would also provide
an area effect but would be a unitary
design at the same time large unitary
might cover larger warheads designed to
provide different kinds of effects
against single targets such as deep
penetrating capabilities for use against
bunkers and other hardened facilities
don't forget these are just some
possibilities and with the information
available now we can't say for sure what
the exact design of these payloads might
be the isr package could similarly
include any number of different sensors
but of course the air force has
previously confirmed that mayhem is
connected to research and development of
advanced scramjet propulsion
technologies and multi-cycle jet engine
designs this had appeared to point to
work on turbine-based combined cycle
tbcc or dual mode scramjet engine types
the basic idea behind these kinds of jet
engine designs is to get around the fact
that scramjets and ram jets do not
perform reliably at lower speeds
coupling them with a more traditional
jet turbine would enable an air vehicle
to operate reliably in that lower speed
range
when applied to a reusable manned or
unmanned aircraft this engine
configuration could theoretically allow
for a design that can fly at hypersonic
speeds during the mid course portion of
a sortie and take off and land like a
more traditional plane using existing
runway infrastructure this has long been
seen as a holy grail capability for a
viable hypersonic aircraft michael white
the principal director for hypersonics
and the pentagon's office of the
director of defense research and
engineering for modernization described
mayhem project mayhem is to look at the
next step in what the opportunity space
allows relative to hypersonic cruise
missile systems and so if you look at
what we're doing right now and the sizes
we're looking at to deliver capability
you get a certain range and a certain
payload to that range and certain
compatibility with the air platforms
that we have today he continues what the
secretive mayhem is about project mayhem
says okay what happens what can we do to
build a much bigger system to deliver
more effects at longer range he
continued and so really it's looking at
that kind of evolution of capability
that you might get to extend what you
can achieve with a highly efficient air
breathing platform weapon platform and
take advantage of that efficiency but
still extend the range to significant
significantly longer ranges than what
we're doing today
it very much remains to be seen how the
air force's mayhem program will evolve
and what prototype designs it ultimately
produces let's hear what you think of
the secretive project mayhem in the
comment section below