It looks like the U.S.’ next mega-missile is going to be a multipurpose killer. For over a year, the futurists at Darpa have wanted a high-speed missile that can take down a variety of targets in the air and on the ground. Now, they’re read to shell out $21 million for a missile named for the most fearsome cyborg of all.
Darpa officially announced this week that defense giant Raytheon is going to build its Triple Target Terminator. The T3, as it’s known, is a project for a long-range missile that can destroy cruise missiles, ground air defenses and hostile planes. That’s a bigger deal than it sounds — right now, it takes a whole array of different weapons to handle these missions. A single missile doing ‘em all might save the Pentagon some cash, and it should make the plane carrying these weapons lethal to a wider variety of foes. Darpa wants the missile to launch either from stealth jets, bombers or drones.
It’s hardly Darpa’s first foray into the missile world. Last year, it issued two contracts to develop a Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, an effort to take down ships in places where the U.S. Navy can’t easily operate.
The most recent defense budget included $7 million for Darpa to study production of the T3 missile. As Graham Warwick reported last year for Aviation Week, researchers examined “technologies for propulsion, multi-mode seekers, data links, digital guidance and control and advanced warheads.”
Not much is known about just what exactly the T3 will ultimately be. Raytheon representatives referred inquiries to Darpa; Darpa hasn’t returned them yet. But the company has until next October 22 to complete its work on the project: time travel doesn’t seem to be a feature of the missile just yet.
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