A Revolutionary New Missile is Coming - And We May Not Be Ready

President Trump recently ordered the Pentagon to create a missile defense system like Israel's Iron Dome. It's a tall order - the U.S. is 446 times larger than Israel. But the Pentagon is all about tall orders.

The "dome" is a smart idea. It doesn't stop every missile, but it gets impressively close. Last year, Israel's Iron Dome faced two massive missile and drone attacks from Iran and proved its worth: the first attack, in April, involved 30+ cruise missiles and 120+ ballistic missiles.  The Iron Dome helped intercept 99% of the them. In October, the second attack came, sending 200 more ballistic missiles -- enough warheads to obliterate cities.  Again, most of the barrage was intercepted, with only minor damage suffered. After all the attacks were over and the dust cleared, there was only one fatality.

It's good to have a "dome".

When President Trump announced the U.S. was developing its own, you might have wondered if that meant we didn't have one. Does the U.S. not have a missile defense system? Are we just sitting ducks?

The answer is no. If Iran or Russia or China launched missiles at the United States, they would be met with a barrage of defenses very much in line with Israel's capabilities. The U.S. currently has land-based Patriot missile systems that are legendarily effective in actual combat, positioned in at least eight allied nations around the world. This is paired with the ocean-based Aegis ballistic missile defense deployed on U.S. Navy ships, among other locations. And finally there's the infamous Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, the one you see in movies about nuclear war -- tall missiles buried in secret silos with the sole mission of intercepting ICBMs in space before they enter the atmosphere and hit and turn into apocalyptic mushroom clouds.

So why the Golden Dome? It's better. We would be adding more advanced layers of protection. If the enormous cost is approved (the Congressional Budget office estimates it will take $542 billion), the plan is to add more resources to stop the newer, more advanced missiles. Like the Hypersonic Glide Vehicles which can maneuver and fly lower than traditional ballistic missiles. The Golden Dome would add more defenses to destroy these new weapons and generally better handle a massive attack, should it ever come.

In all these cases, a missile defense system works the same way. First, finding the incoming missile - done through its heat signature using infrared radar. Then, tracking its trajectory so the missile can intercept. And this all has to happen in a matter of minutes.

But a recent research paper getting some attention suggests scientists may have figured out a way around all that. In fact, they may have uncovered a revolutionary new weapon.

Missiles - both offensive and defensive - use solid fuel. It has enormous advantages over liquid fuel in a missile that has to sit for decades but then suddenly need to launch in seconds. Simply put, solid fuel can be loaded into a missile ahead of time, sit for years in a silo, and then suddenly launch in a matter of seconds. Liquid fuel has to be loaded just ahead of launch - if it sits in the missile too long it can become toxic and corrosive. Loading fuel takes time you don't have when an attack is launched against you. And launching with liquid fuel can take minutes, even after the fuel is on board.

But once the missile is launched, the advantage goes entirely to liquid fuel. Liquid rocket engines produce more thrust. And that thrust can be easily adjusted, increased or decreased or even shut off during flight. Imagine a deadly missile being able to change speeds. Solid rockets burn at a fixed rate.

In this new research paper, an idea is introduced to bring these liquid-fuel advantages to missiles powered by solid fuel. The idea was inspired by nuclear thermal rockets (NTRs). NTRs -- which may be used to power starships in the future -- use heat from a nuclear reaction to turn a light-weight gas into a super-hot gas. When a gas gets super-hot, it expands. And when you force that expanding gas through a nozzle, you get enormous thrust. Even better, because light gas expands so easily, its "push" is significantly stronger. It's more efficient than normal rocket fuel. 

The new idea presented is the "solid-gas hybrid rocket motor (SGHRM)". It works by using the hot gases from burning solid fuel to heat helium gas, which then expands and becomes a powerful thrust to propel the rocket. No nuclear reactor needed, but you get an efficient and powerful rocket.

This hybrid model creates strategic advantages that may prove deadly in the wrong hands. 

First, the SGHRMs work by injecting helium gas into the exhaust stream, and this injection can be adjusted. That means an SGHRM can speed up, or slow down, or vary its flight pattern. The missile could modulate thrust in mid-flight and make unpredictable maneuvers, even changing altitudes. Defense systems could be tricked, and finding a path to intercept would be near-impossible in tight time windows.

Second, the helium mix makes the exhaust temperature 2,420.6°F cooler than a normal solid fuel rocket. That's so much cooler, the plume may not even be detected by infrared sensors. These SGHRM missiles might not even be seen before it's too late.

SGHRMs may quietly mark the beginning of a new propulsion era, combining the simplicity of solid rockets with the dynamic control of more complex liquid systems. If weaponized, it could undermine current missile defense systems.

The idea is complex - it would require enormous cost and a high level of engineering skill to pull off. But there's a bigger concern with the idea.

It didn't come from the U.S. The research came out of Harbin Engineering University earlier this year. Which is in China.

We don't have to worry about this revolutionary weapon getting in the wrong hands, because it's already there. 

Here's hoping the Golden Dome figures out a way to compensate.