August 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace
By: Andrew Chuter
LONDON – Rolls-Royce has formed a strategic partnership with British hypersonic-power experts Reaction Engines and is backing that up with a new investment in the company.
The new partnership is aimed at developing high-speed propulsion systems for defense and civil applications as well as exploring Reaction Engines' key thermal management technology as part of Rolls-Royce's own gas turbine engines and hybrid-electric systems.
Rolls-Royce will invest £20 million ($26 million) over the next two years, building on an initial equity investment made in 2018. Other investors like BAE Systems, Boeing Horizon-X and financial institutions could follow suit, said a Reaction Engines spokesman.
The announcement comes as Rolls-Royce steps up its interest in supersonic flight.
Earlier in August, Virgin Galactic revealed a delta-winged Mach 3 sub-orbital vehicle concept powered by Rolls-Royce.
Earlier this year the British engine builder said it was collaborating with the U.S. company Boom Aerospace on propulsion options for a Mach 2.2 airliner called Overture.
“We have been working closely with Reaction Engines for the past two years, including exploring the potential of high-Mach systems for defense applications, and I am delighted that we are able to strengthen that relationship,” said Mark Thompson, director of global strategy and business development at Rolls-Royce.”
“Reaction Engines' thermal-management skills, added to our suite of existing technologies and capabilities, will further assist us as we explore opportunities in supersonic and hypersonic aviation,” Thompson added.
The two companies have also been involved with BAE and the UK Ministry of Defence in the first phase of a contract related to high-Mach advanced propulsion systems which could eventually find their way on to the British Tempest sixth-generation combat aircraft development.
Aerospace and defense consultant Howard Wheeldon, of Wheeldon Strategic Advisory, said the tie-up demonstrated the determination of both companies to be at the forefront of high-speed engine development going forward.
“The future of aerospace development from here on is about creating greater efficiency of operation and sustainability. Speed, including supersonic and hypersonic aviation development, will be an important part of this, and high-Mach advanced propulsion systems combined with the potential to apply some of the developed Reaction Engines technology within existing gas turbine engines together with what this offers for future hybrid-electric systems is of huge importance to a world-leading aerospace company such as Rolls-Royce,” he said.
Reaction Engines CEO Mark Thomas said the partnership will help speed commercialization of the technology.
“This strategic partnership is about developing market-ready applications for Reaction Engines' technology in next-generation engines and is a significant step forward for our technology commercialization plans,” said Thomas.
Based at Culham, southern England, and with a test site at Denver, Colorado, Reaction Engines has been developing technology to power aircraft and rockets at supersonic and hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above – more than twice the speed of the Concorde.
Last October Reaction Engines announced its key lightweight air cooling technology had been tested at its Colorado facility as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's HTX project.
At the time Reaction Engines said its heat exchanger had been exposed to hypersonic conditions approaching 1,000 degrees centigrade (1,800 degrees F).
The heat exchanger performed its precooler function by quenching about 1,800-degree Fahrenheit temperatures in less than one-twentieth of a second.
Wheeldon said the Colorado test was a significant step in the development of Reaction Engines' SABRE rocket engine program.
“As an enabling technology for a potentially large range of other precooled propulsion systems that have potential commercial applications, the successful testing last year by Reaction Engines of its precooler heat exchanger at airflow temperatures conditions representing Mach 5 was a significant milestone in the development of its revolutionary SABRE air-breathing rocket engine. The new strategic partnership with Rolls-Royce offers further the commercial opportunities and potential for both companies,” said Wheeldon.
SABRE, which stands for Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine, is a propulsion system being developed to operate in air breathing and rocket modes using the pre-cooler technology.
February 18, 2022 | International, Aerospace
Under a new contract, Orbital Insight will use commercially available data and advanced algorithms to detect and alert operators to possible spoofing attempts.
May 19, 2020 | International, Naval
The Navy and Marine Corps' vision of a future surface fleet is starting to come together, even if they're still waiting for the Defense Secretary and Congress to give their blessings. By PAUL MCLEARY WASHINGTON: The Navy might not yet have an overarching plan to design and build its fleet of the future, but it is taking small steps that provide clues as to where service leadership wants to go. Over the past week, the Navy announced two industry days to meet with prospective shipbuilders for a new class of logistics ship that can operate under fire, and an unmanned anti-mine vessel, both new programs that would allow the Navy and Marine Corps to push deeper into contested territory in the Pacific, and keep troops and sailors resupplied once they get there. The Next Generation Medium Logistics Ship is the bigger effort, representing an entirely new class of manned ship designed to operate in a crowded environment while supplying ships at sea and a new, lighter, Marine force on the ground that is currently being designed by Commandant Gen. David Berger. A May 15 post on a government contracting website asked the defense industry for their ideas, explaining that the Navy is looking for ships that are “smaller than existing ships in the Combat Logistics Force, and will operate near contested environments, sustaining afloat (Surface Action Group) and ashore (Expeditionary Advanced Base) requirements.” The expeditionary advanced base idea is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the Marine Corps to get lighter, faster, and more deadly by employing precision weapons the Corps hopes to integrate into its formations in the coming years. Berger is working to stand up several Marine Littoral Regiments, with the first based in Hawaii and falling under the Japan-based III Marine Expeditionary Force. The first three regiments, designed to move fast and have anti-air and possibly anti-ship weapons, will be based in the Pacific region, pointing to where Berger and the Marines see the pacing threat coming from in the future. Relying on smaller units armed with precision weapons that can operate inside the weapons range of an enemy, moving in tight waterways and using small islands to provide cover for naval air air forces is key to the emerging Marine Corps vision, which has its eye cast squarely on the South China Sea. More broadly, Berger plans to lop off a significant portion of the Corps' traditional strength — artillery, armor, and rotary wing lift — in favor of a leaner, more precise and much faster force. The Navy, conversely, while pledging to move forward with some unmanned ship plans, generally wants to retain its huge nuclear aircraft carriers, dozens of big deck amphibs, and an aging destroyer fleet while introducing a new frigate to the mix. Not all those ships would be able to move as far afield as the new Marine regiments, making support and resupply an issue, though a new class of frigates, which the Navy selected earlier this month, could possibly fit the bill. The small, multi-mission ships will be more maneuverable than Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and will come with the Aegis combat system, 32 vertical launch cells, the new SPY-6 radar system, and more power generation capabilities that will make it capable of sustaining new directed-energy weapons as they become available. “I see it doing multiple things, this is going to be a real workhorse supporting distributed maritime operations in the future,” Vice Adm. James Kilby, deputy chief for warfighting requirements and capabilities, recently said. To supply those Marines ashore, the Navy believes there are several types of commercial vessels which may be able to perform these missions, but is also considering” conversion of existing vessels, new construction, or a combination of conversions and new construction in order to acquire the required number of Next Generation Logistics Ships,” the solicitation said. On May 13, the Navy also announced a virtual industry day for the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicle program, one of several unmanned efforts the service is planning to bolster the larger, manned fleet. “The purpose of this industry day is to improve industry's understanding of how the MCM USV program fits into the Navy's plans to expand the use of unmanned vehicles,” according to the notice, which adds the MCM “will be a ship-launched or shore-launched, open architecture (OA), surface vehicle capable of autonomous safe navigation and mission execution.” The plans for both programs — and the frigate, as well — depend on what a study being helmed by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist finds in his look at the Navy's Integrated Navy Force Structure Assessment, which the Pentagon blocked the Navy from releasing in February, as planned. After being briefed on the plan for building a 355-ship fleet over the next decade, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the Navy he was taking over the project, and putting Norquist in the lead of relooking the plan. It's not clear what issues Esper had with the plan, but some officials and experts have speculated that the Navy isn't moving fast enough to divest of older, larger ships in favor of smaller, faster and unmanned vessels. Esper has said he expects the study to be complete by July. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/no-shipbuilding-plan-but-navy-works-on-new-ships-to-counter-china/
April 15, 2024 | International, Naval
The SSN-AUKUS submarine design the U.K. and Australia will build is "mature" and should be completed in the next year or two.