Project Gambit seeks a weapon that’s fast, long range, and cheap enough to use.
In its solicitation for Gambit, DARPA specifies that the project is seeking “ram-RDEs as a new class of propulsion.” In this configuration, the rotating detonation engine will allow it to “switch from low-efficiency rocket-booster propulsion to high-efficiency air-breathing propulsion earlier in the flight trajectory than conventional ramjets.”
In addition, the Gambit-sought engine will have a more compact and efficient engine, allowing it to turn extra fuel into greater range than a ramjet, while also freeing the design from a reliance on the moving parts common to supersonic turbine engines. Instead, the detonations will rotate in the annulus, or circular exhaust stream.
Because the engine of the Gambit weapon will have fewer moving parts than other ramjets, DARPA expects it to be cheaper to produce and use. As a DARPA project, research on Gambit will take place over a few years, with conceptual designs expected by the end of the first year and demonstrators that are “weapon-scale, tested at weapon-flight conditions, and be flight-weight” expected to be tested by the end of the third year.
If the contractors can deliver, and given the years of research put into similar projects already, DARPA will have sheparded into existence a new weapon for fighter jets. Armed with the weapon produced by Gambit, planes could quickly hit important, time-sensitive targets like ammunition depots, all thanks to a supersonic engine powered by continuous explosions.
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