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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 21 November 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under its Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It reviews propulsion concepts that use weakly ionized plasmas and magnetohydrodynamics for hypersonic flight and spacecraft. It concludes that the Ajax MHD energy bypass concept is meaningless below Mach 12. A reverse energy bypass with a Virtual Cowl is judged potentially practical, and electric propulsion is expected to become standard for spacecraft.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 11/21/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and plasma-based concepts for air-breathing propulsion, onboard power generation, and aerodynamic control, arguing that such systems could in principle extend aerospace performance beyond the limits of conventional chemical propulsion and control surfaces. The report reviews concepts including MHD acceleration, flow control, inlet control, onboard power generation, drag reduction, and plasma-generated “virtual” aerodynamic surfaces, while giving particular attention to hypersonic applications such as scramjet power extraction, reentry vehicles, global-strike gliders, and aero-assisted orbital maneuvers. However, it emphasizes major practical constraints, especially extreme power requirements, system weight and complexity, and the difficulty of achieving useful ionization in colder air at lower hypersonic speeds; on that basis, it argues that Ajax-style MHD bypass concepts, in which energy is extracted from the airflow upstream and reintroduced downstream through an electromagnetic system, are not meaningful below about Mach 12, while treating the “virtual cowl” and related reentry applications as more plausible. The document presents plasma and MHD aerospace systems as a technically serious but highly demanding field whose nearer-term promise lies in specialized hypersonic control, power generation, and reentry applications rather than a fully realized air-breathing propulsion system.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /FAR AFEiliCl.t.l: W8f! er•t I Chapter 5: Endnotes 1 F. WiL on, "Recent Advances in Satellite Propulsion and Associated Benefits." AlAA-2006-5306, 24th Int rnationaJ Communications Satellite Systems Conference, San Diego, CA, June 2006. 2 E. Choueiri, "A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First 50 Years,' Jo urnal of Propul ion and Power, Vol. 20, No. 2, March-April 2004. 3 Journal of Propulsion and Power, Special Section "Weakly Ionized Plasmas for Propulsion Applications," Vol. 24 No . 5-6, September-October and November- December 2008. 4 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider, and R.B. Miles, "Modeling of Discharges Generated by Electron Beams L□ Dense Gases: Fountain and Thunderstorm Regime," Physics of Plasmas, 2001, Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 1518- 1528. 5 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider, R.B. Miles, and R.J. Lipinski "Electron Beam Generated Plasmas LO Hypersonic Magnetobydrodynamic Channels ' AIAA Journal , 200l , Vol. 39 o. 6, pp. I l27-l L36. 6 S.O. Macberet, M.N. Shneider, and R.B. Miles. " Modeling of Air Plasma Generation by Repetitive High Voltage Nanosecond Pulses," IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 30 No. 3 June 2002, pp. 130 l - l314. 7 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider, and R.C. Murray, "Ionization in Strong Electric Fields and Dynamics of Nanosecond-Pulse Plasmas," Physics of Plasmas Vol. 13, 2006, 023502. 8 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider, R.B. Miles, and R.J . Lipinski , "Electron Beam Generated Plasmas in Hypersonic Magnetohydrodynamic Channe ls," AIAA Journal , 2001 , Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 11 27-1136. 9 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider, and R.B. Miles, "Magnetohydrodynamic and Electrohydrodynamic Control ofHypersonic Flows of Weakly Ionized Plasmas," AIAA Journal , Vol. 42, No. 7 July 2004, pp. I 378- I 387. 10 Journal of Propulsion and Power, Special Section "Weakly Ionized Plasmas for Propulsion Applications," Vol. 24, os. 5-6, September-October and November- Decemb r 2008. 11 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider and R.B. Miles, «Magnetohydrodynamic and Electrohydrodynamic Control of Hypersonic Flows of Weakly Toni.zed Plasmas," AIAA Journal , Vol. 42 , o. 7, July 2004, pp. 1378-1387. 12 E. Choueiri, "A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First 50 Years," Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 20, No. 2, March-April 2004. 13 R. Frisbee, editor, "Advanced Space Propulsion Concepts," Jet Propulsion Laboratory internal document, January 2002. (This document was accessible via internet until 2003 but has since been removed.) 14 R. Frisbee, editor, "Advanced Space Propulsion Concepts," Jet Propulsion Laboratory internal document , January 2002. (This document was accessible via internet untiJ 2003 but has since been removed.) 15 Thrusters, University of Michigan Plasmadynamics & Electric Propulsion Laboratory, http://aerospace.engin.umich .edu/spacelab/thrusters/thrusters .html. 16 R. Frisbee, editor, "Advanced Space Propulsion Concepts," Jet Propulsion Laboratory internal document, January 2002. (This document was accessible via internet until 2003 but has since been removed .) 17 The Lithium Lorentz Force Accelerator for High Power Space Propulsion Project, Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab, Princeton University, http://alfven.p1inceton.edu/projects/LiLFA.htm. 18 S.O. Macheret M.N . Shneider, and R.B. Miles, "Magnetohydrodynamic Control of Hypersonic Flow and Scramjet Inlets Using Electron Beam Ionization " AIAA Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1 2002 pp. 74 -81. 19 S.O. Macheret M.N. Shneider, and R.B. Miles, ''MHD Power Extraction from Cold Hyperson.ic Air Flow with External Ionizers," Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2002, pp. 424-431. 20 M.N . Shneider, S.O. Macheret, and R.B. Miles, "Analysis of Magnetohydrodynamic Control of Scramjet Inlets," AIAA Journal, Vo l. 42 , No. l l , November 2004, pp. 2303-2310. 2 1 S.O. Macheret, M.N. Shneider, and R.B. Miles, "Optimum Performance of Electron Beam Driven MHD Generators for Scramjet Inlet Control " ATAA Journal , Vo l. 45, o. 9, 2007, pp. 2157-2163. 22 8 . Parent, S. Macheret, M. Shneider, and . Harada," umerical Study of an Electron-Beam-Confined Faraday Accelerator,' Journal of Propu lsion and Power, Vol. 23 , o. 5, 2007, pp. 1023-1032. 23 Kuranov and A. Korabelnikov, "Ahnospheric Cruise Flight Chal lenges for Hypersonic Vehicles Under the Ajax Concept," Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 24, No. 6, November- December 2008, pp. 1229- 1247. UNCLASSIFIED/FQA &FFIEIIIIL ~9E 811Li 26
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 32 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.