The range of US missiles using new fuel will increase by 20%
According to US media reports, US officials want to use new fuel for some of the US military's missiles, increase the range of the missile, so that the US military can deploy and launch missiles further away from China, so as to gain an advantage in the Pacific region and improve its own survivability. At the same time, the United States is also practicing "agile deployment" against China in the Western Pacific region. However, experts believe that this does not fully solve the problems caused by the US military across the vast Pacific Ocean to fight other powers.
The United States will create a special agency to accelerate the use of high-energy materials
According to a Reuters report on Aug. 3, two U.S. congressional aides and two U.S. officials revealed that the Pentagon and Congress are considering increasing the range of certain existing weapons by 20 percent by using more powerful propellants and lighter warheads.
Last week, the U.S. Senate unveiled legislation designating at least $13 million for planning, expanding and manufacturing compounds (energetic materials) that could be used to propel missiles or replace explosive materials in warheads. "The distance in the Indo-Pacific and the sheer size of the [Chinese] navy mean the US needs more anti-ship missiles that can reach distant targets." U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher said, "It is unfortunate that the Pentagon has become satisfied with energetic materials from the 1940s and has overlooked advanced energetic materials like the 'China Lake Compound 20' (CL-20), which are necessary to increase the range and lethality of our forces' weapons." Each additional foot of missile range takes American troops one foot away from danger."
Next year's National Defense Authorization Act will launch a Pentagon program to use chemicals such as CL-20 to increase the range of existing weapons. According to the Center for Energetic Materials Technology (ETC), nearly all energy technologies used by the U.S. military date back at least 80 years. With funding from the Office of Naval Research, famed chemist Arnold T. Nelson first synthesized the "China Lake 20 compound" at the Naval Air Weapons Center in the 1980s. ETC said that CL-20 and HMX explosive performance is very different, its penetration depth increased by 40%, which for specific scenarios, the overall lethality of the warhead significantly increased.
The greater explosive power also means that munitions using CL-20 have a longer range, but manufacturing CL-20 is more challenging than synthesizing HMX, so U.S. industry needs hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds of CL-20 orders.
A senior U.S. defense official said a study published in 2021 said re-powering the rocket with the CL-20 and other changes could increase the range by about 20 percent. The new high-energy material gives the 400-pound bomb the same lethality as the current 1,000-pound bomb, according to a paper by the Energetic Materials Technology Center, adding that China "manufactures CL-20 on an industrial scale and uses it in weapons systems." China uses the CL-20 in its own weapons and is far ahead of the United States in advanced energetic materials.
Three types of ammunition may be extended
To speed up the pace, the US Senate has earmarked funding for the creation of a high-energy Materials office within the Department of Defense, under the direction of Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. The office will serve as a coordinating agency for the Army, Navy and Air Force to cut through agency red tape.
Tom Karako, a weapons expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the cost of repowering U.S. stockpiles or using new explosive chemicals could run into billions of dollars, a figure that largely depends on which weapons are replaced with power systems and how many are modified or procured. As previously reported on the website of Defense Daily, the Tactical Air Force and Army Subcommittee of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) in its proposed draft of the Committee's fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Bill asked the U.S. Department of Defense to launch a pilot program to incorporate CL-20 explosives into three types of ammunition.
According to Defense Daily, the Energetic Materials Technology Center in Maryland has been evaluating which of the six munitions are suitable for the CL-20, and Lockheed Martin's AGM-158C Long-range anti-ship Missile (LRASM) and AGM-158B Extended Range Joint Defense Area Outer Space Missile (JASSM-ER) will be the best choices for testing. Bob Kavitsky of the Technology Center for Energetic Materials said other possible weapons include Boeing's Harpoon anti-ship missile and Javelin anti-tank missile. "Defense Daily" said that so far, the US military has used CL-20 ammunition is limited, including the "switchblade 300" patrol missile provided by the US Department of Defense to Ukraine and the initiation device for triggering high-energy materials (explosives, propellants and fireworks). Northrop Grumman produces 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of CL-20 a year, but the company is able to scale up production significantly and costs will come down if orders increase.
Test agile base
In addition to using new energetic materials to make missiles fly farther and more powerful in order to gain superiority in the Western Pacific and China, the United States is also stepping up "agile base" testing in the Western Pacific region. In an article titled "Agile base gets Real-world Test on Northern Pacific Edge: Changing F-15 Engines on small Island," the "Sudden Defense" website said that one of the highlights of the "Northern Edge" exercise, held for the first time in the warmer part of the Pacific, was to test some key concepts, such as an agile base across waters closer to China. The exercise, which usually takes place in the northernmost tip of Alaska and its waters, began on July 2 this year and runs through July 21.
Reported that on July 9, "Northern Edge" exercise, a practice scenario: an F-15 fighter jet had to make a forced landing on Iwo Jima to replace the engine. After receiving the news of the F-15 engine failure and the crash landing on Iwo Jima, the U.S. military base Iwakuni in Japan quickly dispatched a C-130 transport plane loaded with spare engines to Iwo Jima and repaired the F-15 within 12 hours. These efforts are essential for "Agile combat deployment" (ACE). The idea is to get U.S. military aircraft across the Pacific Ocean, making it harder for China or any other country to destroy U.S. and allied aircraft moored at large bases.
In another exercise, the U.S. military simulated a brake hydraulic oil leak after landing on an F-35A in the Pacific island nation of Palau. The pilot radioed Guam, and a C-130 took off with the necessary parts and had the aircraft repaired and ready for combat within four and a half hours. On a main base with maintenance crews and parts, such a repair would typically take only half an hour, with most of that time spent transporting parts from Guam to Palau.
For the United States' various measures against China, Chinese military expert Zhang Xuefeng said that the United States claimed that if the United States took the initiative to break out a conflict with China, the United States military bases in the first island chain were difficult to protect themselves, so the United States proposed the concept of "agile deployment", dispersed deployment in the rear, and then fast forward, fast attack, fast withdrawal, while proposing ways to increase the missile range. But the vastness of the Pacific naturally weakens the strength of the US military's projection into the Western Pacific, which is one of the biggest challenges facing the US military. Adding roughly a fifth of the range to some cruise missiles will not turn the tide. This is more like using China as a cover to upgrade its energetic materials production system.
Ian Overton, executive director of the nonprofit Armed Violence Initiative, said that, in a sense, arms races always end badly. "Do bigger, deadlier weapons make us safer? The answer is clear: No. Over the past decade, when explosive weapons have been used in populated areas, 90% of those reported killed or injured globally have been civilians."
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