"Military Subplane" Author: Mecha 888
▲The full-scale model of the new generation of air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile of the "Mako Shark" (picture source: Internet)
At the U.S. Sea, Air and Space 2024 symposium held last week, Lockheed Martin showed a full-scale model of a new generation of air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missiles called "Mako Shark" at the exhibition site, and announced some of the performance parameters of this missile. It is reported that the missile may become one of the main air-to-surface strike weapons of the F-35 series fighters in the future.
▲The U.S. Air Force F-35A fighter jet dropping the GBU-49 enhanced "Paveway" laser-guided bomb (picture source: Internet)
As the main fifth-generation air combat platform of the United States and most of its allies, the F-35 series fighter has been carrying the title of "advanced joint strike fighter" since its birth, but its main opposing attack weapons are still mainly based on more traditional precision-guided munitions in the defense zone, such as: "Jedam" series of precision-guided bombs, "Paveway" series of laser-guided precision-guided bombs, JSOW, and so on. Therefore, when attacking land/sea targets, the F-35 series fighters can only rely on their own stealth performance to break into the range of the enemy's medium and long-range air defense weapons, then in this case, with the continuous improvement of the performance of the world's air defense equipment, especially the continuous progress of anti-stealth radar technology, the F-35 series fighters are still facing a greater risk of being shot down.
▲AGM-88G "extended-range advanced anti-radiation missile" mounted in the belly bomb bay of an F-35C fighter (picture source: Internet)
For this reason, it has become inevitable to match the F-35 series fighters with air-to-surface strike ammunition with better performance. In recent years, well-known foreign military enterprises, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, have made a lot of useful attempts and efforts in this regard, and the results include the AGM-88G "extended-range advanced anti-radiation missile" launched by Northrop Grumman and the protagonist of this article, the "Mako Shark" new generation of air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile developed by Lockheed Martin.
▲The "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile is a hypersonic missile that uses the principle of "boost-glide" (picture source: Internet)
According to available information, the Mako Shark air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile was previously designed to bid for the US Air Force's SiAW new-generation air-to-surface missile project, but at present the missile is also being actively marketed for use by the US Navy. In terms of specific performance, the "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile is about 3.96 meters long, about 330.2 mm in diameter, and weighs about 589.67 kg. The air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile also applies a composite guidance system that combines inertial guidance and GPS guidance, so that it has a high strike accuracy, and the types of targets it can hit include various types of fixed or mobile targets on land and at sea.
▲The "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile has excellent mobile penetration capabilities (picture source: Internet)
In terms of mounting and using platforms, the "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile can be mounted through 30-inch heavy launchers such as BRU-32, and in addition to being carried by F-35 series fighters, it can also be mounted on F-15/16/18/22/35 series and P-8 and other fighters, among which, when using F-35 series fighters for mounting, a single F-35 series fighter can carry up to 6 "Mako Sharks" Four of the air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missiles are mounted on external pylons under the wings on both sides, and the remaining two are mounted in the belly bomb bay. At the same time, in addition to the air-based platform, Lockheed Martin also showed that it will develop land-based and sea-based versions of the "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile, of which the land-based version of the "Mako Shark" multi-mission hypersonic missile will be launched using a land-based container launch system, while the sea-based version of the "Mako Shark" multi-mission hypersonic missile will be launched through the MK41 universal vertical launch system.
▲F-35 series fighter carrying the "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile (picture source: Internet)
To sum up, if the "Mako Shark" air-launched multi-mission hypersonic missile can be successfully equipped with the United States or its allies in the future, it will greatly enhance the air-surface strike capability of fighters, including the F-35 series fighters, and at the same time, because the missile may be designed as a new tactical hypersonic missile with multi-platform launch in the future, it can also further enhance their long-range attack capability for the land or sea combat platforms of the United States or its allies that can use this missile.