In April 2021, and while a first flight of the French hypersonic glider VMAX [Véhicule Manoeuvrant Expérimental] was expected, the Directorate General of Armaments [DGA] had warned, via notifications HYDROLANT 1140-1121 and NAVAREA IV 337/21, that navigation was going to be potentially dangerous in four areas located between Biscarosse and the north of the American continent, due to a missile test.
If the first three sectors characterized the trajectory of a ballistic missile, the fourth, located north of Bermuda, deviated significantly from it, which was unusual. And that suggested that a craft would be released during this test. Finally, the Ministry of the Armed Forces put a stop to speculation by announcing, on April 28, the successful launch of an M51 missile.
A priori, it was an M51.3, whose development had started in 2014. With a longer range of several hundred kilometers, thanks to an improved third stage, this missile was then to enter service in 2025.
What will happen to the next test that the DGA is about to carry out from its Biscarosse site, between June 26 and 30? Indeed, new navigational warnings concerning two zones have just been issued for this period. The first extends up to about 2000 km off the Landes. That is to the level of the Celtic Sea. As for the second, perpendicular to the first, it has the shape of a quadrilateral with a base of about 300 km for a height of 200 km. What makes the trajectory thus defined is, there again, unusual.
Two hypotheses can be put forward. Thus, it is possible that the DGA is preparing to launch a naval cruise missile [MdCN], whose range of 1000 km is consistent with the shape of the two sectors having been the subject of a navigational warning. But it is also not impossible that the VMAX is about to make its first flight.
Especially since, during a recent parliamentary hearing dedicated to nuclear deterrence, the General Delegate for Armaments [DGA], Emmanuel Chiva, had indicated that the “demonstrations of technological bricks for hypersonic gliders” were going to be “soon undertaken”. And to specify that it was necessary, for this purpose, “to build a base for launching sounding rockets in our test center in Biscarosse”.
Last May, as part of the hearings relating to the draft military programming law 2024-30, Admiral [2S] Charles-Henri du Ché, ArianeGroup’s military adviser, assured that the VMAX would “fly shortly”. And to insist: “We are perfectly on time”. Has that hour come?
As a reminder, carried away by a sounding rocket, the VMAX must “bounce” on the layers of the atmosphere at a speed greater than Mach 5. For the moment, it is only a demonstrator… which will be followed very soon by a second supposedly more “efficient” and which “will go further in the experimentation”, explained Admiral du Ché.
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