En la carrera que llevan adelante las principales potencias mundiales, por el desarrollo de Armas Hipers\u00f3nicas, el Pent\u00e1gono (DoD \u2013 EUA) convoca a universidades de ese pa\u00eds para que colaboren en los diferentes programas en curso, aportando sus conocimientos y experiencias en la crucial etapa de la transici\u00f3n del \u201claboratorio a la producci\u00f3n de sistemas operativos\u201d. Se trata de un modelo aplicado hace a\u00f1os en China, donde los universitarios se encuentran muy involucrados en los m\u00e1s innovadores programas relacionados con la Defensa.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 As the Pentagon races to develop hypersonic weapons<\/a>, it is turning to universities for help on speeding up the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Defense Department on Oct. 26 tapped Texas A&M University to create and manage a University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics. Over a five-year period, the department will pay out $20 million per year to the university\u2019s Engineering Experiment Station, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Greater interplay among government, academia and industry is needed to better integrate the various state-of-the art technologies <\/a>necessary to create hypersonic weapons, which require novel propulsion systems and advanced materials that can withstand the extreme conditions intrinsic to flying five times the speed of sound, said Gillian Bussey, director of the Pentagon\u2019s Joint Hypersonics Transition Office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe department is funding a good amount of basic research in hypersonics,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re finding that tests leading some of the more applied areas,\u201d which supports the transfer of technologies into manufactured products, \u201care not quite as healthy and not bringing fresh blood into our work force and into our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The new consortium will work directly with the Defense Department and other government agencies on hypersonic research, with a focus on partnering with industry to transition new technologies into programs of record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bussey pointed to hypersonic development activities in China<\/a>, where academic research papers show that college students are being exposed to every element of hypersonic vehicle development, from design to flying experimental prototypes in windtunnel tests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The U.S. consortium will start working on challenge projects, where a military agency like the Office of Naval Research designates a problem for the university to solve. Those problems could potentially involve classified or controlled technologies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe gold standard [for the U.S. university consortium] would be to have the team develop a vehicle and fly it. That really depends on our budget and how things go,\u201d Bussey said.<\/p>\n The consortium is set to begin operations this fall and will be led by Rodney Bowersox, an aeronautical engineering professor at Texas A&M and director of the university\u2019s hypersonics laboratory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A board of experts \u2014 with members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Arizona, the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Morgan State University, the California Institute of Technology, Purdue, the University of California-Los Angeles, and the Georgia Institute of Technology \u2014 will also provide guidance to the new organization.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Developing and fielding hypersonic weapons has been a major priority for the Defense Department officials, who have raised concerns about Chinese and Russian advances in that realm. Last week, national security adviser Robert O\u2019Brien announced<\/a> that the Navy\u2019s Virginia-class submarines, Zumwalt-class destroyers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers would all eventually be able to launch hypersonic missiles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe do believe we are in a bit of a race right now,\u201d said Mark Lewis, the department\u2019s director of research and engineering for modernization. \u201cWe had previously a number of a prototype efforts. Now we\u2019re looking to those prototype efforts, especially the ones that are most successful, transitioning directly to programs of record.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n