Air Transport

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has demonstrated submunitions dispensing from a supersonic vehicle in sled tests performed under a programme to develop technology for a high-speed weapon that is among options for the US Air Force's long-range strike requirement. Tests at the Holloman high-speed sled track in New Mexico were conducted under the US Office of Naval Research's Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long-Range Strike (RATTLRS) programme. Flight test of the turbine-powered Mach 3-plus RATTLRS demonstrator are planned for late next year. In the supersonic sled tests, a model representing the RATTLRS vehicle dispensed submunitions simulators while travelling at more than 2,000ft/s (600m/s).