DARPA Launches the FALCON Program to Study Feasibility of Global Strike Missions

Released on Thursday, July 03, 2003

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Air Force have launched the Force Application and Launch from CONUS (Continental United States) program to develop and validate technologies required for global strike missions.

The Global Strike Capability means that a hypersonic vehicle will be able to attack anywhere on earth in less than 2 hours from the United States. This capability will free the US Military form reliance on forward basing to enable it to react promptly against threatening countries and terrorists organizations.

The Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) will be the first platform deploying the Global Strike Capability with an estimated in service date circa 2025 and beyond. It will be able to take off from conventional military runways to attack targets located at up to 9,000 nm (16,700 km) in less than 2 hours. It could carry a 12,000-pound (5,500 kg) payload consisting of cruise missiles, small diameter bombs, Common Aero Vehicles (CAVs), or other munitions.

The CAV is an unpowered, maneuverable, hypersonic glide vehicle capable of carrying about 1,000 pounds in submunitions and other payloads. Released from space (450 km of altitude) CAV could have a downrange between 3,000 and 9,000 nm (5,000-16,000 km)

Despite deployment date for the HCV is intended by 2025, the FALCON program could deploy an interim Global Strike capability through small and affordable rocket boosters called SLV carrying CAV vehicles by the end of the current decade. The first demonstration flight of the HCV platform is expected in 2009.