What is the difference between a Maneuverable reentry vehicle (MARV) and the current Hypersonic Glide vehicles?
Are Hypersonic Glide vehicles an improved form of the earlier MARV designs?
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tl;dr:
What is the difference between a Maneuverable reentry vehicle (MARV) and the current Hypersonic Glide vehicles?
MARVs are typically utilised in the terminal phase of a ballistic trajectory.
HGV's typically utilise the upper atmosphere to skip and glide.
Hypersonic cruise missiles can use the above or can travel at lower altitudes utilising their propulsion instead of gliding.
MARV's are maneuvrable but have a limited footprint and range extension due to the phase at which they are utilised.
HGV's are more capable than MARV's in that they can also move in the cross range, turning left and right at far larger distances, flying an unpredictable flight path that defeats traditional early warning systems and defenses.
Ultimately, HGV/HCM are much more maneuvrable and can extend the range and available flight path footprint far beyond that of a typical MARV.
Is Hypersonic Glide vehicles an improved form of the earlier MARV designs?
Yes and no.
HGV's build upon the experience of MARV's, which were developed in the 1950's.
Simplistic guide:
As you can see, MARV's are still as vulnerable as traditional BM's when they are still in their ballistic phase.
In this way they share common advantages and disadvantages as MIRV's used in many ICBM's.
HGV's on the other hand are boosted to altitude and speed in a similar manner to the boost phase of a ballistic missile but then glide to their targets from a much earlier point.
HGVs are unpowered gliders for most of their flight.
As an example the Chinese DF-17 boosts to 60 km altitude and Mach 10. Then it glides for 2000 km+.
The DF-17’s booster appears to be the same as that used for China’s DF-16 ballistic missile. Its accompanying DF-ZF HGV reportedly reaches speeds of Mach 5-10 (1.72-3.43 km/s) in its glide phase. U.S. intelligence assessments suggest that the DF-17 possesses a range between 1,800 and 2,500 km.
U.S. defense officials have also said the DF-ZF HGV performed “extreme maneuvers” and “evasive actions” in previous test flights.
https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/df-17/
In simplest terms, MARV's date from the 1950s and a typical example, and most often cited, is the US Medium Range Ballistic Missile, the Pershing II, deployed in the 1980s and now retired.
Consider its trajectory (though not a true MARV, as the terminal phase is used for target acquisition rather than interceptor avoidance and/or range):
from a Chinese study:
The re-entry vehicle:
Although some MARV's are seen with control vanes or some sort of aerodynamic control, other common control is by reaction thrusters.
Generic trajectory of a MARV:
MARV's described publically in 1983:
Earlier development:
https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/B/BGRV.html
The Boost Glide Re-entry Vehicle (BGRV) was a classified United States Air Force program to investigate missile maneuvering at hypersonic speeds after re-entry into the atmosphere. Upon re-entry, flight control was achieved by using aft trim flares and a reaction jet system commanded from an on-board inertial guidance system. A BGRV was launched on February 26, 1968, from Vandenberg Air Force Base by an Atlas F to the area of Wake Island in the Pacific, collecting data that proved valuable in developing later maneuvering re-entry vehicles.
Continuing with HGV's:
The US, for example, had two main HGV projects running from 2003-2014 – the Mach 20 Falcon HTV-2 and the US Army’s Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW). Three out of four flight tests were unsuccessful, with both flight tests of the HTV-2 failing at the nine-minute mark.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/09/darpa-gives-lockheed-1473-million-to.html
Previously known as Project 4202 or Yu-71, the arrow-like lifting body Avangard is launched by a SS-19 ICBM, before gliding at Mach 20-27. Designed to evade the latest US ABM defences, Avangard is speculated to use a ‘skip’ mission profile, similar to Sänger’s Silbervogel (World War 2 concept: ultra long-range suborbital bomber, able to strike the US from Europe by ‘skipping’ in and out of the upper atmosphere), to increase its range.
https://www.aerosociety.com/news/from-saenger-to-avangard-hypersonic-weapons-come-of-age/
HGVs can use three mission profiles
– a purely ballistic one,
a glide or
a skip profile.
Ballistic – (as used by missiles since the V2) gives least time within the atmosphere – but also has the highest thermal heating (albeit for the shortest period of time).
A glide profile, meanwhile, sees a long period of time in the atmosphere, but a lower comparative level of heating, for a longer, sustained flight period of time. It also allows the vehicle to manoeuvre.
Finally the skip profile sees flight within and outside the atmosphere. This allows for extended range and by ‘skipping’ out of the atmosphere the vehicle can also temporarily reduce heating – making it more difficult to track by IR sensors. A skip flight profile can also manoeuvre.
Another advantage, ...is that HGVs are difficult to track – with current over-the-horizon early warning radars being optimised for incoming ballistic missiles. Meanwhile, while infra-red missile warning satellites in GEO are optimised to detect the large plume of rocket launches and missiles during the boost phase, they have more difficulty tracking HGVs once in the glide phase where they are lower in the atmosphere.
https://simanaitissays.com/2020/01/23/the-hypersonic-arms-race/
An HGV’s ability to maneuver as it descends into thicker and thicker air allows it to be both more accurate and unpredictable. When the vehicle’s wings begin generating lift as it reaches the upper wisps of the atmosphere, it gains the ability to roll and maneuver. This means it can alter its trajectory to take aim at a different target than its orbit suggested, or to evade an anti-ballistic missile.
An HGV could also use its maneuverability to extend its range: By pulling up on re-entry, it can re-exit the atmosphere in a ballistic trajectory, skipping above the atmosphere and making a second re-entry thousands of miles away.
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/11/how-does-chinas-hypersonic-glide-vehicle-work
https://www.ft.com/content/f647d654-e870-4829-8dc2-90c98985c034
https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/china/df-fobs.htm
Wavey trajectory in HGV's:
Aimed to retard the response of a ballistic missile defence system, wavy trajectory with three crests was designed ...to replace the traditional parabola trajectory.
Wavy trajectory of missiles can embarrass the defence system in detecting and computing the track and destination before re-entry.
a new kind of ballistic missile was designed with an additional rocket engine, which can be ignited twice.
Finally, the trajectory profile was optimized with complex algorithm to maximize the average amplitude of three wavy.
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/10/2976/htm
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Lightning_Bolts/lN0w6X0PG3QC?hl=en
https://ndiatvc.org/images/downloads/SMDWG_Dec_2018/lackey_parsons_hypersonics.pdf
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$\begingroup$ potentially of interest in Politics SE: Does North Korea get permission to test-fly weapons over China and Russia? $\endgroup$– uhohFeb 9, 2022 at 4:17