Hypersonic bomber with a speed of 11,000 km/h is being developed by the US in the secret £260 million Project Mayhem

AMERICA plans to build a hypersonic bomber that can reach speeds of 7,000 mph in a top-secret plan called “Project Mayhem.”

When Russia and China introduced their hypersonic weapons, the US seemed to be falling behind, but the country’s air force has its eyes on a bigger prize.

The £260 million project aims to build a bomber capable of reaching high speeds that could confuse the enemy’s modern air defenses.

And it won’t be a single-use weapon; the bomber can be refueled and used again and again.

Little is known about the classified project, but the Air Force contract announcement revealed that Mayhem is a multi-mission project dedicated to reconnaissance and attack.

The aircraft is expected to be able to carry two weapons as well as a hypersonic drone used for surveying enemy areas.

The weapons are described in documents as having a “large unit payload” and an “area effect” – which could refer to missiles.

The device will reportedly be able to travel through the air at a speed of 11,000 kilometers per hour, ten times the speed of sound.

The Mayhem will be powered by an ‘air-breathing’ propulsion system known as a scramjet – an engine that compresses air to a flammable pressure.

To operate such an engine, the aircraft must reach speeds of more than 3,000 km/h, which makes a safe landing impossible.

To overcome the challengethe pioneering bomber will use a jet engine to reach speeds of 3,000 km/h, before switching to a scramjet for hypersonic speeds.

If the Mayhem Project proves successful, the U.S. military will be able to outpace the enemy’s defense system virtually unnoticed.

The aircraft can conduct reconnaissance or drop missiles on targets before escaping enemy territory unscathed and returning home to refuel and repeat the mission again.

It provides a strategic advantage for the military, but combining a jet engine with a scramjet has not yet been successfully implemented.

The Air Force must figure out a way to make the conventional jet engine work without impeding the scramjet’s airflow or making the plane too heavy.

When the aircraft flies at such incredible speeds, the shock waves produced at ultra-fast speeds can also heat the hypersonic vehicle up to 1000 degrees Celsius.

To survive the journey, the bomber must be covered with materials that have not yet been invented.

The US Air Force has awarded £260 million to engineering firm Leidos to digitally design the aircraft to find a solution.

Draper’s Frank Serna – a company working with Leidos – said in a statement: “A key element in hypersonics development is the implementation of model-based engineering as a cost-effective way to evaluate design concepts before proceeding to build a prototype.”

But the Mayhem program may have run into another problem: funding has delayed its implementation next one step of development.

Leidos reportedly did not receive the financial support to complete the design, causing the entire project to be halted until funds were restored.

There are also rumors that the US Air Force may have changed course, possibly by teaming up with Lockheed Martin’s SR-72.

The SR-72 aircraft, also known as the ‘Son of Blackbird’, is part of a top-secret mission by the US Air Force to improve their aviation capabilities and control the airspace.

Despite the plane’s plans technically having nothing to do with the Pentagon, it was believed they were keeping a close eye on Lockheed Martin’s futuristic plane.

The SR-72 will reportedly be able to fire projectiles such as hypersonic weapons at a more impressive speed than anything before it.

It comes as the US could soon launch a weaponized hypersonic missile into space to show off its impressive war effort arsenal to the world.

The formidable missile can reach speeds of up to 15,000 miles per hour and will blast across the Pacific Ocean to humiliate a desperate Vladimir Putin in the US Air Force’s final tests.

Rumors about the new high-tech missile started when the Air Force unveiled images of the menacing AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).

Currently, China is the only known country to have an ARRW and the latest American development has been omitted Russia trying to get one for myself.

Photos show the weapon, which can strike targets within a 1,000-mile radius, being carried under the wing of a B-52H bomber at a popular U.S. air base in Guam.

The Pacific Island has been a major site for new weapons tests in recent years.