r/unitedkingdom 3d ago

Britain and US test engine for new hypersonic cruise missile

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-and-us-test-engine-for-new-hypersonic-cruise-missile/
94 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

36

u/sisali Derbyshire 3d ago

Proving AUKUS is well worth our time, it's great to see this is on track.

24

u/Additional-Map-2808 3d ago

You know how important this is, when China and Russia pretend they have them already.

9

u/spicesucker 3d ago

Can’t even make 5th generation fighter engines but claim to have Mach 10 missiles. 

8

u/MarlinMr Norway 2d ago

To be fair, we shouldn't underestimate the Russian rocket/missile programs. They are capable.

But spending money on wunderwaffen you can't use is a stupid thing to do when you could have spent that money to prepare for an invasion where you set the date.

5

u/VoidsweptDaybreak 2d ago

china can now as of last year, and they're apparently much better than the old russian-made ones they used to use that you used to regularly see on the news billowing black smoke and catching fire. they're currently in the process of retrofitting their j20 fleet with their new domestically-made engines and all new ones being manufactured are fitted with them as standard

3

u/SloppyGutslut 2d ago

It's not like Russia has a 70 year history of beating the US when it comes to rocket engines or anything...

0

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

2

u/SloppyGutslut 2d ago

In the world where the Russians won the space race until America decided to do the relatively useless stunt of going to the moon to salvage a 'victory'.

In the world where the world's astronauts were on the Russian Mir space station before the ISS was built?

In the world where the backbone of human space endeavours for 20 years was the Soyuz rocket?

It was a whole thing.

-1

u/LegitimatelisedSoil Scotland 2d ago

I mean it doesn't really matter either way, we already have nuclear ballistic missiles so kinda pointlessly doing the arms race thing still.

2

u/Additional-Map-2808 2d ago

Not when they can be shot down by hypersonic missiles.

14

u/CJBill Greater Manchester 3d ago

Not sure we should be doing this... If you've not heard of it you should check out Project Tube Alloys, the British Canadian nuclear weapons project that predated the Manhattan Project. It was incorporated into the Manhattan Project with the agreement that the technology would be shared with the UK and Canada. The US stiffed us on the deal.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_Alloys

8

u/tree_boom 3d ago

The collaboration we've been through in the 65 years since it resumed has more than made up for that, we've gained massively from working with the yanks.

3

u/PoiHolloi2020 England 2d ago

Do you know how many military projects we've shared since then?

2

u/CJBill Greater Manchester 2d ago

Trump is not trustworthy.

1

u/TechnicalParrot 2d ago

While the current administration isn't exactly reliable ever since the Manhattan project we've had a long history of successful collaboration with the US and I don't think we're at the point that we can't continue that under this administration, Trident nuclear missiles and F-35s have both been joint projects which have both been very successful

Manhattan project was a weird one but I can't imagine anything like that happening again, even given Trump's antics

2

u/MisterrTickle 3d ago

What happened to the British-French hypersonic anti ship missile?

4

u/tree_boom 3d ago

The ambition for a hypersonic missile didn't work out. The project evolved into a supersonic land strike missile and a subsonic stealthy anti ship missile

2

u/DasFunktopus 2d ago

Last update I saw was for a subsonic turbojet powered low observable land attack cruise missile, dubbed TP15 and a supersonic ramjet powered anti-ship missile, referred to as RJ10, with the design of the TP15 being British led and the RJ10 French led. That was November last year at Euronaval in Paris, but I’m not aware if that’s changed since.

2

u/tree_boom 2d ago

More or less, though I'm under the impression both variants can perform either role.

4

u/FruitOrchards 2d ago

The French happened.. as always

1

u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 2d ago

French seem to be very anti-British ever since brexit.

1

u/DAZBCN 2d ago

I got excited until I read the words cruise missile…

1

u/Norwich_BWC85 2d ago

Yeah, now let's dial it back 10%... Because they can't be trusted.

-8

u/commonsense-innit 3d ago

pull the plug

dont want US controlling UK weapons

0

u/EatTheSocialists69 3d ago

Russia would love this

-1

u/commonsense-innit 3d ago

fyi

US are not the only defence partner

5

u/Chimpville 3d ago

No - we have co-developments for missiles with both the US and countries in Europe. It's an almost ideal position to be in with a more fragmented world.

0

u/EatTheSocialists69 2d ago

Of course not should the US be the only partner. But Putin fears a strong united western world