Lockheed Martin has announced that its new hypersonic missile is ready to go into production. This is Makonamed after the fastest shark in the ocean, a weapon that has been in development for more than seven years and which the manufacturer claims is multi-missioncan be incorporated into a wide variety of aircraft and used to support air strikes, maritime strikes, anti-aircraft defenses and other missions. It is capable of maneuvering in a high-altitude hypersonic regime and penetrating advanced air defense systems to attack high-value targets. at hypersonic speeds or lessdepending on mission requirements.
The variety of aircraft The types of aircraft it can be mounted on include the F-35, F/A-18, F-16, F-15 and P-8, and internally on the F-22 and F-35C. Any aircraft with 30-inch booms, including bombers, can carry it.
According to Lockheed Martin, Mako belongs to the company’s first generation of missiles designed entirely in a digital engineering ecosystem and benefits from best systems engineering practices throughout its life cycle.
‘Due to its digital and open architecture design, Mako allows for rapid integration of mission-specific elements such as warheads and guidance sensors, empowering users to upgrade Mako without any proprietary complications,’ the company said in a press release.
The hypersonic missile weighs 589 kilograms and its fuselage has a diameter of 33 centimeters and is 4 meters long.. It can be deployed on fifth-generation fighters for insertion attacks and has the range to launch at operationally significant distances. that keep aircraft at a safe attack distance.
Although Lockheed Martin has not made public details about speed, accuracy and range, the company has stated that it is Finding new ways to innovate with the product.
Fully digital design and additive manufacturing are being used to reduce costs and the scheduled production time of the missileAdditive manufacturing is a manufacturing process in which objects are created by adding material layer by layer, starting from a digital design. This method contrasts with subtractive manufacturing, where material is removed from an initial block to form the desired object.
With Mako, engineers They used additive manufacturing to produce the guide section and finsThe guide section meets all engineering requirements and is ten times faster and cheaper to manufacture than with conventional subtractive methods.
The company offered Mako for the program Weapon of Attack in SituationSiAW for its acronym in English, of the US Air Force. Although decided not to continue in phase 2The hypersonic missile benefited from the innovations and maturation efforts invested in it as the Air Force’s first fully digital acquisition missile. Additionally, to reduce risk and cost, the hypersonic missile incorporates components from already proven fielded systems and supply chains.