两年前，美国的高超声速防御系统还是一种尚无实际开发的宽泛概念研究，但如今已经发展成为一种严密分层的研发体系结构，该体系结构将由新一代天基传感器和地基拦截器所组成。

A U.S. hypersonic defense system has evolved from wide-open concept studies two years ago into a densely layered architecture populated by requirements for a new generation of space-based sensors and ground-based interceptors.

在接下来的两年中，如果高超声速防御体系结构中所有要素都能克服各种困难，包括五角大楼如果能完成其长期资金投放的承诺，那么该防御系统的首批组成部分就可能会服役。

Over the next two years, the first elements of the Defense Department’s newly defined hypersonic defense architecture could advance into operational reality if all the pieces can overcome various challenges, including the Pentagon’s so far ambiguous commitment to long-term funding.

美国航天发展局（SDA）在导弹防御局（MDA）和国防预研局（DARPA）的协助下，可以使用新型追踪技术的卫星将于明年送入轨道，这些卫星的追踪技术经过优化，以实现对大气层中机动飞行的高超声速导弹进行远程跟踪。

The Space Development Agency (SDA), with assistance from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), next year will start launching satellites into orbit with new forms of tracking technology optimized to perform the challenging task of remotely targeting hypersonic missiles as they maneuver in the atmosphere hundreds of miles below.

同时，MDA和DARPA即将开始展示新型的动能和非动能拦截器，拦截器除了解决高超声速飞行带来的制导方式和热防护挑战外，这些新型的拦截器还必须接受来自卫星的超地平线引导，而不是仅由发射系统自有的传感器进行引导。

At the same time, the MDA and DARPA will soon begin demonstrating a new class of kinetic and nonkinetic interceptor technologies. In addition to solving the guidance and thermal challenges posed by hypersonic flight, this new class of missile defense weapons must be guidable by satellites potentially perched far over the horizon, not by sensors integrally linked on the ground to their launching systems.

在2017年，五角大楼启动了多个进攻性武器计划，在随后的一年里五角大楼就开始构想一种高超声速防御架构，旨在弥补目前弹道导弹防御系统中的空白，这些空白可能被对手利用高超声速武器进行突破。

Pentagon officials began conceiving a hypersonic defense architecture a year after launching multiple offensive weapons programs in 2017, seeking to close gaps in the ballistic defense system that missiles now fielded by adversaries are designed to exploit.

高超声速滑翔飞行器（HGV）和高超声速巡航导弹具有在不规则弹道上飞行数百千米的能力，旨在躲避MDA遍布全球的固定的陆基或移动缓慢的海基雷达网络。在大气层中滑翔或动力飞行的高超声速飞行器可以得到地球表面温暖背景的掩护，而据MDA防务研究和工程部副部长Michael Griffin表示，在MDA的天基红外系统（SBIRS）卫星的传感器中，在飞出大气层后的常规弹道导弹助推段要比这种高超声速飞行器“明亮”10~15倍。

With the ability to maneuver hundreds of miles off a ballistic trajectory, hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) and cruise missiles are designed to evade the MDA’s network of stationary ground-based and slow-moving sea-based radars dotted around the globe. By gliding or powering through the atmosphere against the warm background of Earth, the same missiles appear 10-15 times less luminous during the midcourse phase than the boost-phase, exoatmospheric objects that the MDA designed the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites to detect, according to Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

但是缩小与高超声速武器的突防能力差距需要大量投资，尽管五角大楼计划在2025年前投入超过100亿美元，以部署至少三种不同的HGV飞行器作为进攻性武器，但他们对于高超声速武器防御能力的财政承诺还没有保证。

Closing those gaps will require serious investment. Despite plans to infuse more than $10 billion to field at least three different rocket-boosted HGVs by 2025 as offensive weapons, the Pentagon’s financial commitment to field a defensive capability is not as clear.

例如，MDA在2019年2月提交了2020财年预算申请，其中包括约1.57亿美元的提升对高超声速武器的防御能力。在一个月后，MDA又向国会提交了一份“未获资助的优先事项清单”，要求再拨款7.2亿美元用于高超声速拦截器和跟踪传感器。国会最终半数以上投票通过了MDA的提案，为拨款法案最终增加了4亿美元。

The MDA, for example, submitted a fiscal 2020 budget request in February 2019 that included around $157 million in hypersonic defense. A month later, the agency submitted an unfunded-priorities list to Congress, asking for another $720 million for hypersonic interceptors and tracking sensors. Congress met the MDA more than halfway, adding $400 million to the final appropriations bill.

MDA的2021财年预算要求中也出现了类似的缺口。根据战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）导弹防御项目3月份的报告，MDA的预算中已包括了用于高超声速防御的2.07亿美元，但要求国会在上述额度之外再追加2.24亿美元的预算。

A similar shortfall then appeared in the MDA’s fiscal 2021 budget request. The agency included $207 million for hypersonic defense but asked Congress to chip in another $224 million on top of the budgeted amount, according to a March report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Missile Defense Project.

而且，国防部对高超声速防御支出的长期预算的态度只能算是模棱两可，MDA计划在2021财年发起选择区域滑翔武器系统（RGPWS）的竞标，但前提是国会批准“未获资助的优先事项清单”中额外的2.24亿美元预算。同时，SDA的新计划将展示MDA的“高超声速弹道跟踪和监视系统”（HBTSS），同时还有SDA自己的轨道跟踪系统。

Moreover, the Defense Department’s long-range forecast for hypersonic defense spending shows an ambiguous commitment at best. The MDA plans to launch a competition to select a Regional Glide-Phase Weapon System (RGPWS) in fiscal 2021 but only if Congress approves the additional $224 million identified in the unfunded priorities list. At the same time, the new SDA plans to start demonstrating MDA’s Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking and Surveillance System (HBTSS) alongside the SDA’s own tracking layer in orbit.

但是，在公开版本的未来国防计划中，根据其详细列出的未来国防部五年支出的预测，在明年后对高超声速防御的资金支持将下降。根据CSIS的数据，如果国会批准前述MDA的额外2.24亿美元预算，明年高超声速防御支出将达到约4.5亿美元的峰值，然后从2022-2025财年每年平均预算只有约1.12亿美元。这表明尽管MDA公开承诺建立高超声速防御系统，但该机构还是倾向于主要通过年度国会附加项来为项目发展提供资金。

But the unclassified version of the Future Years Defense Program, which details the Defense Department’s five-year spending forecast, shows declining support for hypersonic defense after next year. If Congress approves the extra $224 million for MDA, hypersonic defense spending would peak at around $450 million next year, then average about $112 million annually from fiscal 2022 to 2025, according to the CSIS data. The implication seems clear: Despite the MDA’s public commitment to a hypersonic defense system, the agency prefers to finance the development mainly by annual congressional add-ons.

尽管MDA的高超声速防御长期资金计划有限，但未来潜在的高超声速导弹威胁并不是有限的。2019年12月，俄罗斯政府宣布由改进的SS-19洲际弹道导弹发射的“先锋”高超声速滑翔弹头（HGV）已形成作战能力。

Although the MDA’s long-term funding plan for hypersonic defense is limited, the potential threats are no longer speculative. In December, the Russian government announced it had achieved operational status for the Avangard, a nuclear-tipped HGV launched by a modernized SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missile.

两个月前，时任参谋长联席会议副主席的Paul Selva将军解释了对手拥有核打击HGV能力的含义：在假设的想定下，北约试图阻止莫斯科占领波罗的海国家的举动，此时俄罗斯战略打击力量以威胁发射“先锋”导弹作为回应。这位已退休的将军警告说，“先锋”弹头可能会在北冰洋上空飞行，当到达加拿大哈德逊湾的北端时可能会改变航向，然后它可能会转向瞄准美国东海岸或西海岸，而美军目前没有能力防御它。

Two months earlier, Gen. Paul Selva, then-vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained the implications of an adversary with a nuclear-armed HGV: Imagine if NATO attempted to blunt a move by Moscow to occupy a Baltic state, and Russian strategic forces responded by threatening to launch an Avangard missile. The now-retired general warned that a single Avangard could arc over the Arctic Ocean, and as it reached the northern tip of Hudson Bay, Canada, could change course. It could then veer to target the U.S. East Coast or  strike the West Coast, Selva says. U.S. forces currently have no ability to deter or defend against such a capability.

为了解决对这种武器的防御，防御系统需要一种新的天基跟踪系统。对此SDA主任Derek Tournear 在6月4日的网络研讨会期间表示，五角大楼现有的卫星只能跟踪比HGV或动力高超声速飞行器更加明显的信号，而当要尽量消除背景杂波时其传感器的视野则非常狭窄。

To solve that problem, a new space-based tracking system is needed. The Pentagon’s existing satellites are either looking for a more luminous signal than that of an HGV or a hypersonic cruise missile or are using a very narrow field-of-view sensor to minimize background clutter, says SDA Director Derek Tournear, who spoke with Aviation Week during a June 4 webinar.

为了解决该问题，SDA的1级（Tranche 1）低轨道星座中的40颗卫星将于2024财年发射，这些卫星携带用于跟踪高超声速导弹的传感器。这些卫星与SBIRS或其他天基跟踪系统不同，卫星上将配备宽视场红外传感器，不会具有狭窄的视野，也不会仅针对大气层外的导弹上升段跟踪而进行优化。

The first attempt to solve that problem is scheduled for launch in fiscal 2024. Forty satellites in SDA’s Tranche 1 constellation in low Earth orbit carry sensor payloads for tracking hypersonic missiles. Unlike the SBIRS or other space-based capabilities, the sensors will neither have a narrow field of view nor be optimized for tracking only during the boost or exoatmospheric phases of a missile’s trajectory. Instead, the spacecraft in Tranche 1 will carry a wide-field-of-view infrared sensor.

但是，Tournear同时也表示，尚不能确定这种宽视野传感器能否形成足够高质量的跟踪数据，并为火控系统生成可远程引导拦截器的解决方案。

“However, the jury is still out on whether [the sensors] will be able to form a track that is high enough quality to actually give you that fire control solution so that you can fire [interceptors] on [a] remote [track],” Tournear says.

SDA的备份传感器系统将在MDA的HBTSS程序中进行演示。MDA正在开发Tournear所描述的所谓“中视场系统”，该系统介于现有卫星的窄视场系统和SDA的1级卫星星座的宽视场设计之间。 SDA的宽视场传感器将检测HGV或高超声速巡航导弹，并将在轨数据传递到HBTSS传感器，HBTSS可建立目标火控级质量的跟踪数据，这些数据将传递到地面上的拦截器发射系统。

The backup to the SDA sensor will be demonstrated under MDA’s HBTSS program. The MDA is developing what Tournear calls a medium-field-of-view system, which falls between the narrow-field-of-view format of existing satellites and the SDA’s wide-field-of-view design for Tranche 1. Ideally, the SDA’s wide-field-of-view sensors will detect an HGV or a cruise missile and pass the data in orbit to the HBTSS sensors, which will then develop a target-quality track. That data will be passed down to interceptor batteries on the ground.

在几年之内，SDA将了解该概念设计的工作原理。到2022年底，配备SDA宽视场传感器的8颗0级（Tranche 0）卫星将发射到地球低轨道；2023年，MDA计划将使用中视场传感器的2颗卫星发射到近地轨道，由20个通信中继和数据处理卫星辅助的0级星座将提供有限预警能力，并验证传感器是否按设计工作。

Within a few years, the SDA will find out how the concept works. By the end of 2022, eight Tranche 0 satellites equipped with the SDA’s wide-field-of-view sensors should be in low Earth orbit. A year later, the MDA plans to launch two satellites into low Earth orbit with medium-field-of-view sensors. The Tranche 0 constellation—aided by 20 communications-relay and data-processing “transport” satellites—will provide a limited operational capability and validate that the sensors work as designed.

2024年，SDA计划发射40颗1级星座的卫星。Tournear表示，未来美军在全球任何选定区域内都具有来自卫星的持久红外监测能力。但是，2024年计划发射的这批卫星虽然属于5年支出计划之内，但到目前为止仍未获得资金支持。

The next step comes in 2024, when the SDA plans to launch the 40 satellites in the Tranche 1 constellation. “We would have, in essence, regional persistence of [infrared satellites] over any area of the globe that we choose,” Tournear says. There is a catch, however. The launch of the Tranche 1 satellites in 2024 fall within the five-year spending plan but so far remain unfunded.

在1级卫星星座激活后不久，MDA计划部署RGPWS（为拦截HGV进行优化的新拦截器）。如果国会增加这笔资金预算，那么RGPWS最早可以在2020年代中期部署在美国海军军舰上的MK41垂直发射器上面，随后空射和陆射的型号也会部署。RGPWS的设计要求是机密信息，但其拦截器可能会受益于正在进行的DARPA的一些项目。例如DARPA的“滑翔破坏者”（Glide Breaker）项目试图展示一种用于高超声速导弹防御的关键技术，该项目已选择包括Aerojet Rocketdyne公司在内的一些企业作为供应商。另外，MDA还计划在两年内展示一种针对超远程导弹威胁的“超强功率”微波武器。

Shortly after the scheduled Tranche 1 layer is activated, the MDA plans to field RGPWS, the new interceptor optimized for HGVs. If Congress adds the funding, RGPWS could be fielded as early as the “mid-2020s” with the Navy’s Mk. 41 vertical launch systems on ships and submarines, followed later by air- and land-launched versions. The design requirements for RGPWS are classified, but it’s possible the interceptor may benefit from an ongoing DARPA program. Glide Breaker, which includes Aerojet Rocketdyne as a supplier, seeks to demonstrate a “critical enabling technology” for a hypersonic defense missile. The MDA also plans to demonstrate an “extreme power” microwave weapon against “very long-range” missile threats within two years.

同时，MDA正在升级现有的点防御系统以应对大气层内的威胁。例如洛克希德·马丁公司正在研究称为“飞镖”的改进型THAAD系统，以及称为“女武神”的改进型“爱国者”导弹系统；而除了超高功率微波外，雷神公司还正在研究“标准3”导弹的新型号“鹰”（ Hawk）。

At the same time, the MDA is adapting existing point defenses against atmospheric threats. Lockheed Martin is studying improved versions of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, called “Dart,” and of the Patriot, called “Valkyrie.” In addition to the extreme power microwave, Raytheon also is studying a new variant of the SM-3 called Hawk.

这条消息是Steve Trimble在 Aviation Week & Space Technology 发表的文章。您可以点击此处查看更多关于高超音速的文章。