How effective will these bendy boy missiles be if they enter service?
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/usaf-testing-mutant-missiles-that-twist-in-mid-air-to-hit-their-targets
How effective will these bendy boy missiles be if they enter service?
HE BEND
dynamic body flexing is a more aerodynamically efficient control surface than external surfaces (e.g. fins). So theoretically it could have more range/better terminal maneuverability/energy retention than a comparably sized missile. Check out the X-53 aeroelastic wing demonstrator for a similar concept.
probably the only people who know specific performance gains are the AFRL folks working on the concepts.
The US has finally figured out peak aerodynamics.
dunno
looks like they're building it around hellfire, which might mean their initial intended use will be on smaller short range missiles. So it's probably gonna be to make a more maneuverable CIWS missile - you don't need it for ground targets, and we've got sidewinders for air to air interception.
They're still on the track phase, so there's no data on whether it'll improve effectiveness, but they think it's worth a try.
They already know it won’t work, this is just a big grift.
it's not made by seething thirdies like india, china or russia so it has a chance of working.
>it bends to score a direct hit on the enemy's prostate every time
I find it kinda interesting how development went full circle.
Remember the very first airplanes before WW1? Lots of them didn't incorporate rudders and flaps as we know them but, for example, used wing flexing to achieve the same goal.
Now, 110, 120 years later stuff like this is back. Just amazing.
I imagine that concept took a backseat until material sciences caught up with it?
I don't really buy the
>we point the seeker/warhead
I think it's probably a maneuverability thing that reduces control surface area.
> be Chinese pilot
> missile lock detected
> start evasive maneuvers
> see missile incoming
> it flies by harmlessly
> "heh nothing personnel"
> the missile fucking turns its head to look at me
> mfw
NAHH this is fuckin GOOFY
snek
crooked penis phimosis this is normal usa standard
Probably not half as effective as the pain you have brought fourth upon my psyche by calling it "bendy boy".
did no one save my webm from the last thread? :c
So is it bending to change its course or to direct the shaped charge payload? The latter seems way easier to do.
The answer is yes.
Directional cone is gives you a much larger acceptable intercept error vs an omnidirectional explosion.
I think both potentially
Couldn't they achieve a directed blast with multiple detonators around a warhead? Like phased array radar can steer the beam without physically moving.
You mean something like this? I don't know how well this would work for directing a blast in an arbitrary direction, but you're also missing out on the maneuverability benefit as well.
Exactly.
yes probably but at what cost. given all the tradeoffs in engineering, they appear to have decided that flexible missile gives enough advantages to be worth exploring.
because
the design originally inspired by Chris-chan's duck
I don't understand the point. Is omnidirectional cloud that much worse?
Maneuverability seems like a very dubious benefit, a cylinder makes for a terrible control surface. A tiny turn on a flap is equal to a massive bend of the warhead section.
>*wiggles menacingly at u*
Neato