Lockheed Skunkworks chief Neal Kasena tells us that a Mach 5-plus class aircraft is certainly possible by 2018—the previously rumored deadline for a “prompt global strike” system—but that wouldn’t quite meet the desire to hit global targets in under an hour. For a Mach 5-class vehicle, he says, the Skunkworks has looked at using hydrocarbon fuels in a two-engine system—one a turbine for takeoff, climb, and descent/landing, and scramjets for super-high-altitude cruise. For the ultimate one-hour requirement, new fuels and a different technology would be needed—nearly doubling speed to Mach 9-plus—but the solution probably wouldn’t be available until the mid-2020s.
If the Air Force is in line for a big budget bump from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, the head of Air Combat Command said he would make aircraft spare parts his top spending priority—but cautioned that more money to buy parts won’t equal a…
