The paper discusses the solution to the crucial problem of analyzing the performance characteristics of an air-launched aerospace system (ASS) made in Ukraine as compared with similar foreign ASS. A feasibility study of the parameters of the air-launched aerospace system for the Ukrainian ASS, consisting of a reusable hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle and an expendable launch vehicle (Drenthe et al., 2017), has been carried out. At the same time, two different types of air engines are used as part of a hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle: a turbojet engine for takeoff from the runway and a ramjet engine for reaching the required height of hypersonic speed. The integrated launch vehicle consists of three solid propellant stages connecting to the side. An integrated launch vehicle is placed under the unmanned aerial vehicle and separates when it reaches a required height and speed.

         The technical and economic substantiation of the parameters was carried out according to the criterion of minimizing the costs of the aerospace system, which combines the costs of the development and operation of the aerospace system and shows the number of launches to achieve a reduction in the cost of removing the payload to a given indicator. The results obtained made it possible to determine the performance characteristics of the Ukrainian air-launched aerospace system.

         The paper presents a comparative analysis of the obtained characteristics. The comparisons were made in terms of overall performance, aerodynamic performance, flight performance, and cost performance. The comparison was made with the main analogs: the projects Spiral (USSR), Molot (Russia), GT RASCAL (United States), Sänger-2, and ELAC (Germany). Based on the comparison of the obtained ASS with existing systems, a rationale was provided for the parameters of the air-launched aerospace system.