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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 1131.PDF
Propfans for missiles Increased range is seen as essential to the next generation of cruise missiles, both to increase the stand-off range of the host vehicle and to increase missile flight time to extend the time available for loiter and target selection. Fortunately, propfan technology is on hand, promising up to 50 per cent lower fuel burn than today's turbofan-powered cruise missiles. This trans lates to a range increase of at least that much. When US vice-president Dan Quayle was a Senator, he became an avid supporter of the initiative to promote the development of conventional cruise missiles. In the wake of Propfan technology has yet to find a home in commercial airliners. Its benefits have not been lost on the military, however, which is studying its use to increase the range of cruise missiles. Julian Moxon reports. the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, he reasoned that the limits being placed on strategic and tactical nuclear weapons would drive a need for much more accurate and destructive conventional weapons. Last December the US Department of Defense chose the Navy as lead service for concept definition of a joint Navy/US Air Force conventionally-armed cruise missile, with the USAF managing propulsion concepts at its Wright-Patterson propulsion laboratory. Currently, the Navy's missile effort is called the Long Range Conventional Stand-off Weapon (LRCSW), while the USAF's is the Long Range Conventional Cruise Missile (LRCCM). The specifications of each service are likely to result in weapons that are very similar in size and performance, FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 22 April 1989 33
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