The article was originally published at The Conversation.
Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Russia used a hypersonic missile against a Ukrainian arms depot in the western part of the country. The technology the Russians used is not very advanced. Next- generation hypersonic missiles that Russia, China and the U.S. are developing pose a significant threat to national and global security.
I am an engineer who studies space and defense systems. The new systems pose a challenge due to their maneuverability. The missiles must be tracked throughout their flight because their flight paths can change.
The fact that they operate in a different region of the atmosphere from other existing threats is a second important challenge. The new weapons fly higher than slower missiles but lower thanintercontinental missiles. The U.S. and its allies don't have good coverage for this in-between region.
The impacts of the Ukraine invasion on space exploration are being reported.
Russia claims that some of its weapons can carry a nuclear warhead. This statement alone is cause for concern. If Russia ever deploys this system against an enemy, they would have to decide if the weapon is nuclear or conventional.
If it was determined that the weapon was nuclear, the U.S. would respond by unloading its nuclear weapons on Russia. The time for any last-minute diplomatic resolution would be reduced because of the hypersonic speed of these weapons.
Modern hypersonic missiles pose a greatest risk because of their destabilizing influence. I believe the U.S. and its allies should quickly field their own hypersonic weapons to bring other nations such as Russia and China to the negotiating table to develop a diplomatic approach to managing these weapons.
A hypersonic vehicle can fly at 761 miles per hour (1,225 kilometers per hour) at sea level and 663 mph (1,069 kph) at 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) where passenger jets fly. Hypersonic systems operate at speeds of about 1 mile per second and higher, whereas passenger jets travel at just under 600 mph.
Hypersonic systems have been used for a long time. John Glenn's capsule entered the atmosphere at hypersonic speed when he came back to Earth in 1962. All of the intercontinental missiles in the world's nuclear arsenals are hypersonic, reaching about 15,000 mph, or 24,000 kph, or about 4 miles per second.
ICBMs are launched on large rockets and then fly on a predictable trajectory that takes them out of the atmosphere and then back into the atmosphere again. The new generation of missiles fly very fast, but not as fast as ICBMs. Smaller rockets keep them within the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
Aero-ballistic, glide vehicles and cruise missiles are the different types of non-ICBM hypersonic weapons. A hypersonic aero-ballistic system is dropped from an aircraft, accelerated to hypersonic speed using a rocket and then followed a ballistic, meaning unpowered, trajectory. Kinzhal is a missile that Russian forces used to attack Ukraine. The technology has been around for a while.
A hypersonic glide vehicle is boosted on a rocket to high altitude and then glides to its target. Hypersonic glide vehicles include China, Russia, and the U.S. Navy. The U.S. officials are concerned that China's hypersonic glide vehicle technology is more advanced than the U.S. system.
A hypersonic cruise missile uses an air-breathing engine called a scramjet to sustain its speed after being boosted by a rocket. Because they ingest air into their engines, hypersonic cruise missiles require smaller launch rockets than hypersonic glide vehicles, which means they can cost less and be launched from more places. The U.S. conducted a test flight of a scramjet hypersonic missile in March 2020.
The primary reason nations are developing hypersonic weapons is how difficult it is to defend against them. The U.S. is starting to develop an approach to defend against hypersonic weapons that includes a constellation of sensors in space and close cooperation with key allies. The approach is likely to be expensive and take a long time to implement.
It is important to assess the threat that hypersonic weapons pose to national security because of all of the activity that has taken place. Hypersonic missiles are useful against high value targets, such as an aircraft carrier. The outcome of a major conflict could be affected by being able to take out such a target.
Hypersonic missiles are not likely to be produced in large quantities. Hypersonic weapons are not a silver bullet that ends a conflict.
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