UK Royal Air Force seeks a Mach 4 Airplane to combat Russia's Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle...

via Sputnik (story here).

The UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) has announced plans to create a hypersonic plane which will be capable of flying at more than 3,000 miles (almost 5,000 kilometres) per hour.

Speaking at the Air and Space Power conference on Wednesday, Air Chief Marshal Stephen Hillier, the head of the RAF, unveiled the two-year project, which stipulates that the Ministry of Defence will inject $12 billion into the development of new hypersonic engines over the next two years.

He underscored that the sophisticated engines, which he said will allow the new plane to tackle enemy air defences at a speed of more than Mach 4, or four times the speed of sound, would be “exploring the boundaries of technology”.

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The statement comes as Russia, China and the US continue to develop their hypersonic weapons. The first hypersonic missile was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his address to the country’s Federal Assembly in 2018, when he showcased several types of cutting-edge Russian weaponry.

The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle is capable of flying at a speed of 20 Mach and higher, remaining unsusceptible to being targeted by existing enemy air defence systems. Avangard is expected to enter service before the end of 2019.

Below is a pic of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle...

Objekt 4202 / Yu-71 / Yu-74