AHW supporters hope it might win hearts and minds in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill as a future "prompt global strike" weapon that could attack so-called "high value" targets anywhere around the globe within one hour of an order to attack.

If AHW's Army promoters succeed in landing such a big budget in FY-08 for the missile -- one that must compete against other priorities as the Pentagon struggles to replace equipment worn out in Iraq and Afghanistan -- it would exceed the funds a skeptical Congress offered in FY-07 for an initial and more modest prompt global strike capability.

Appropriators funded development of the Navy's proposed "Conventional Trident Modification" -- which would convert a small number of nuclear-tipped, submarine-based missiles to conventional capability and give them precision targeting upgrades -- at just $25 million of a requested $127 million for the current fiscal year.

In theory at least, AHW might become a follow-on missile to the conventional Trident in the prompt global strike role. Congress gave the Army $8.9 million for AHW in FY-07, and $1.5 million the year before, according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Army officials hope the system could be ready as a "midterm" option, with perhaps as many as six missiles ready for deployment by 2009, officials say. But officials at Air Force Space Command, which is leading an effort to identify midterm and long-term alternatives for prompt global strike, reportedly are dubious that new technologies AHW must integrate can be ready in the time frames the Army has touted.

Supporters had hoped to score as much as $34 million for AHW in the Pentagon's FY-08 budget request, but may be limited to $30 million or less, according to officials.

The desired figures are based on estimates by the AHW program manager, Camilla Gean, that it will take about $40 million over 18 months to embark on the first sounding-rocket flight tests, according to one congressional staffer.

Gean declined to be interviewed about AHW until early this spring, citing a security review of the program.

A $30 million budget "gets us about 80 percent of where we need to be," the Capitol Hill aide told ITP last month.

AHW -- weighing less than 40,000 pounds and measuring less than 35 feet -- is envisioned as a boost-glide weapon capable of attacking targets up to 6,000 kilometers away in less than 35 minutes, according to defense officials.

"The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is inserted into the upper atmosphere with a two-stage rocket, where it separates and hypersonically glides to a designated target," according to an information paper circulated on Capitol Hill and obtained by ITP. "Due to technical advancements in guidance, space-based infrastructure, thermal protection materials and kinetic-energy warheads/fuzes, it is now possible to develop a highly flexible, long-range, low-cost, strategic strike weapon."

The initial boost would get AHW to an altitude of about 300,000 feet, after which the system would glide en route to its target at approximately 150,000 feet, according to other sources.

Upon nearing its target, the weapon would be capable of maneuver -- an important factor to avoid overflight of third-party nations -- and would home in on its endpoint using a precision guidance system, officials say. AHW could be fitted with a 900-pound penetrator warhead or 900 pounds of rods to impact at Mach 4 speed, sources say.

The greatest technical challenge for the nascent Army weapon appears to be a "thermal protection system" that would allow the weapon to endure high temperatures as it flies at hypersonic speeds through the upper atmosphere, ITP has learned. It is unclear, in particular, if newly developed "TPS" materials can withstand flight at the wing's leading edge, according to officials.

The first sounding tests would be focused on TPS material survivability in hypersonic flight and recovery, using an experimental payload, officials explain.

If that first hurdle is crossed, flight tests could be conducted using a prototyped hypersonic-glide re-entry body. These flight tests would begin to incorporate AHW operational controls with the new TPS materials on excursions of increasingly longer ranges and in more stressful environments, as the weapon nears its 6,000-kilometer capability, according to defense officials.