With a new hypersound: achievements and failures of the creators of hypersonic missiles in the past year

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Photo: Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation


Photo: Matt Williams / USAF

Despite all the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the economic problems associated with it, the most powerful countries in the world have been confidently working on promising hypersonic weapons systems for twelve months. Perhaps the final result was not quite the same as it was seen, but the road will be mastered by the walking one.

"Zircon": official birth


Characteristics (hypothetical):



Type: sea-based hypersonic anti-ship missile;
Flight speed: as part of the tests, the rocket reached a flight speed of M = 8;
Range: 600–1000 kilometers;
Warhead weight: about 400 kilograms;
Carriers: Project 885 submarines, promising fifth-generation submarines, as well as surface ships equipped with 3S14 (UKSK) universal shipborne firing systems.


Photo: Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The Zircon rocket is sometimes referred to as weaponscapable

"change the rules of the game" and "the balance of power at sea."

We will not now try to find out whether this is so: obviously, the final conclusions are still very, very far away.

One thing can be stated with complete certainty: the rocket development program is actively developing. In February, it became known about the first test of the Zircon from the ship. The target was located on the ground range. On October 6, 2020, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the project 22350 frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" for the first time performed shooting hypersonic cruise missile "Zirkon" against a sea target located in the Barents Sea. The product was able to hit a target located at a distance of 450 kilometers, while reaching a speed of more than M = 8, which confirms the previously announced characteristics.

These tests marked a turning point in the program for ordinary observers: in fact, for the first time, Russia officially demonstrated a new weapon model.

Previously, perhaps the only clear confirmation of the existence of the rocket was a photograph of 2019, which captured the transport and launch containers (TLC) on board the Admiral Gorshkov frigate. Similar to those that should be used for Zircons.


Still from the video: TV channel Zvezda, youtube.com

In December 2020, a video of new Zircon tests was posted on the official channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“The next test launch of the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile took place in the White Sea. The target of the missile launched from the frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" was located at the Chizh training ground at a distance of more than 350 kilometers.

- says the description of the video.

In addition to the presentation of a hypersonic missile, the timing of the adoption of the complex into service was announced. According to Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko, the complex with the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile will be adopted by the Russian army in late 2021 or early 2022. Prior to this, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, said that one of the frigates would be the first to receive the new complex.

ARRW: Fast Rocket Shallow Steps


Characteristics (hypothetical):

Type: air-launched hypersonic missile;
Flight speed: from M=6,5 to M=8;
Range: approximately 1600 kilometers;
Warhead mass: unknown;
Carriers: B-52H strategic bombers (can carry four ARRW missiles on an external sling - two on each pylon), B-1B, and also, possibly, a promising B-21 Raider stealth bomber.


The Americans are now implementing the concept of a hypersonic triad, in which new and largely unified systems should receive the Navy, Air Force and ground forces.

Perhaps the most attention in 2020 was focused on the promising AGM-183 ARRW air-launched hypersonic missile or Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon. This is a solid-propellant missile equipped with a detachable hypersonic gliding warhead.

This year, for the first time, the characteristics of the product, even if approximate, were revealed: they were voiced by US Air Force Major General Andrew J. Gebara in an interview with Air Force Magazine. As expected, the thesis that the complex will be able to develop a speed of M=20 turned out to be wrong (at least if we trust the new information). The actual flight speed will be from M=6,5 to M=8. Which, of course, is also not enough.


In July 2020, new tests of the AGM-183 took place. As before, the B-52 strategic bomber acted as a carrier.

As before, there were no direct missile launches. Two prototypes of the AGM-183A were hung on the plane. One of them was equipped with a telemetry unit, and the second received some details of the control system.

Notably, a B-1B bomber recently launched an AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile from an external mount. It is assumed that the experience gained can be used to test hypersonic weapons from an aircraft.

HAWC and HCSW: the main losers


HAWC specifications (estimated):

Type: air-launched hypersonic missile;
Flight speed (cruising): M=5 or more;
Range: unknown;
Warhead mass: unknown;
Carriers: various American fighters. First of all, F-15E and F-35.


The HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept) hypersonic missile, in all likelihood, can be called the main disappointment of the year when it comes to the development and testing of hypersonic systems.

Recall that the complex is not a very large tactical hypersonic missile, which should be able to hit both stationary and moving targets. Unlike the AGM-183A, it will receive a ramjet engine. The bidders are Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. It was Lockheed Martin that was allegedly involved in the recent failed tests.

It is not known exactly what happened at the end of 2020. According to Air Force Magazine, the Americans unsuccessfully tested the product from a B-52 bomber. According to the data presented, the problem lay in the mechanical aspects of the launch: because of this, the launch from the strategic bomber had to be canceled.

“This is not a question related to the design of a hypersonic cruise missile. This is from the category of stupid mistakes, ”

– said on this occasion an informed source.

Previously, a more serious failure befell a project with a similar name and a similar concept - HCSW or Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon.

In February, Air Force Magazine reported that the program had simply been shut down. The reason is trivial - lack of funds.

Perhaps in the near future we are waiting for new postponements and new curtailment of once ambitious projects.
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27 comments
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  1. 0
    30 December 2020 18: 13
    Something is not lucky for our “partners”. Catching up is always harder.
    1. -9
      30 December 2020 18: 56
      Mattresses do not have an extra chromosome, therefore they are doomed to swallow the dust behind the leading country.
  2. +5
    30 December 2020 18: 18
    Americans have an interesting tradition of choosing abbreviations. In addition to their immediate meaning, they also look like some ordinary word.

    HAWC = hawk (hawk)
    ARRW = arrow (arrow)
    HCSW = hacksaw (hacksaw)
    1. 0
      30 December 2020 18: 37
      Quote: military_cat
      In addition to their immediate meaning, they also look like some ordinary word.
      Well, marketing, branding, you can safely wind up 20-25% lohu to the customer. )))
  3. -12
    30 December 2020 18: 53
    The hypersonic analogues_there is no "dagger" in fact turned out to be an old tinted rocket from the "iskandar".
    Speaking of the no less breakthrough analogues, there is no "zircon", propagandists first showed retouched photographs of the American X-51, and recently they tried to issue an onyx launch as successful tests, probably he is the middle new-old wunderwaffe.
    But more than 2 years have passed since Putin's speech.
    1. +6
      30 December 2020 19: 39
      The hypersonic analogues_there is no "dagger" in fact turned out to be an old tinted rocket from the "iskandar".
      Speaking of the no less breakthrough analogues, there is no "zircon", propagandists first showed retouched photographs of the American X-51, and recently they tried to issue an onyx launch as successful tests, probably he is the middle new-old wunderwaffe.
      But more than 2 years have passed since Putin's speech.

      God level analytics))))
  4. +1
    30 December 2020 19: 57
    Quote: Sergey39
    Catching up is always harder.

    I won’t write much. Do you know the X-15 aircraft, manned, flew at a speed of 5M, reached altitudes of over 100 km. over 15 M.
    60-80 years, USA. so who is catching up? hi
    1. +1
      31 December 2020 05: 24
      Then we caught up, now they are. And it's easier to catch up more often. The one who goes first fills the bumps, spending a large amount of resources.
  5. +1
    30 December 2020 20: 03
    personally, I see problems with hypersonic missiles in the west with the Bologna education system, we have similar problems in Russia, but we have a huge plus SOVIET R&D and REMAINING STAFF
    1. +5
      30 December 2020 20: 19
      The Boeing department works in Moscow, there are no problems with personnel. Mask also works with ours. It’s more like something in technology, since it’s shamelessly secret. hi
      1. -3
        30 December 2020 20: 28
        Andrei has been a trend since 1990, I understand people somewhere Russia plus the bureaucracy is a complex country, but if I grew up I got an education, well, we live even with a goat set to zero, what can I say, a strong conservative people, and I am part of this people and I live at home among my people so far
    2. +2
      30 December 2020 20: 38
      That is rather a different question, the youth of a technical mindset go into it, because of this, almost everyone has a drawdown in the quality of engineers.
  6. +9
    30 December 2020 21: 17
    "It's interesting the girls are dancing!" More recently, the Americans "proved" that Russian hypersonic "daggers" do not "have the right" to be called hypersonic missile weapons ... only missile launchers with ramjet reaching hypersonic speed (and indeed ... aircraft with ramjet ( !...) - the true bearers of the proud title of "hypersonic"! Well, now we have stood in the wake of the "dagger", hoping to "quietly" get ahead! It is recalled that there were quite a few at VO who were in solidarity with the opinion of the Americans!
    What I want to pay attention to ... If the "dagger" shows the characteristics of a hypersonic weapon, provided that it is first accelerated to supersonic by the MiG-31, then ARRW is supposed to be launched from a relatively "slow" B-52! There is some reason for this! What can be offered from "our" side? Well ........ And if you work with hypersonic zura 77N6-N and 77N6-N1? Is it possible to bungle something similar to ARRW on the basis of these missiles? For the Tu-95 ... maybe for someone else ... what
  7. +3
    31 December 2020 00: 23
    no one has atmospheric hypersound and never will. and all these tales from our propaganda were invented for a fabulous bunker grandfather
    1. 0
      31 December 2020 05: 26
      And the earth is flat
    2. 0
      2 January 2021 20: 41
      Quote: Mikhail Zakharov
      no one has atmospheric hypersound and never will. and all these tales from our propaganda were invented for a fabulous bunker grandfather

      Exactly, exactly...
      ... All this is fiction, there is no Rio de Janeiro, and there is no America, and there is no Europe, there is nothing. And in general, the last city is Shepetovka, on which the waves of the Atlantic Ocean break.
      laughing
    3. 0
      3 January 2021 07: 36
      And our propaganda understands what kind of atmospheric it is or not?)))
  8. +2
    31 December 2020 11: 03
    In short: hypersonic cruise missiles with a ramjet engine did not work,
    and the gliders and air-based BR turned out well.
  9. 0
    31 December 2020 13: 09
    In the classical sense, we do not have hypersonic aircraft with a scramjet. The complex, Dagger, is a conventional aeroballistic missile with a solid propellant rocket engine. The test missile, Zircon, is a modernized anti-ship missile. .So about the constant noise in our media about hypersonic missiles, this is just noise, nothing more.
  10. 0
    31 December 2020 16: 46
    Quote: Nikolaevich I
    If the "dagger" shows the characteristics of a hypersonic weapon, provided that it is first accelerated to supersonic by the MiG-31, then ARRW is supposed to be launched from a relatively "slow" B-52!

    Is it okay that Iskander shows "characteristics of hypersonic weapons" when launched from the ground?

    In general, Putin’s verbal balancing act about the “hypersonic Dagger” as a kind of breakthrough (although the same “hypersonic” Iskander has been in service for 10 years) really makes one doubt the “revolutionary nature” of those solutions tested in Zircon.
    1. 0
      31 December 2020 20: 41
      Quote: bars1
      Is it okay that Iskander shows "characteristics of hypersonic weapons" when launched from the ground?

      Do you have such a hobby ... to hesitate to every post? There has already been a lot of talk about BR with their hypersonic speeds! This is a well known fact! But when they talk about hypersonic missile weapons now, they put into it certain (!) Common (!) Ideas, opportunities and tasks ... tactics of use!
      1. 0
        3 January 2021 07: 29
        By the way, BR. Avangard is a good step towards correctable hypersound for BR. What kind of thing will turn out there, attacking on hypersonic planning in the case of "bringing" to the possibility of full-fledged guidance, I can’t imagine. Well, it's still a job for many years. There, the KVO is not needed 50-70 meters, but 2 no more. And the ranges, if, for example, the same "Iskander" becomes a "throw" platform to throw warheads for 40-50 kilometers in the "planning" mode, are directly impressive.
  11. +1
    31 December 2020 22: 07
    Quote: Nikolaevich I
    What I want to pay attention to ... If the "dagger" shows the characteristics of a hypersonic weapon, provided that it is first accelerated to supersonic by the MiG-31, then ARRW is supposed to be launched from a relatively "slow" B-52!

    Namesake. The Kinzhaol has hypersonic speed even without the MIG. It's just that the Mig becomes, as it were, the starting accelerator of this system and the hypersonic speed of the "Dagger" is higher than if it were launched from the same TU-95. Launching from a strategist allows you to have a "long hand". If the same MIG has a combat radius of the aircraft itself of about 700 km plus a "Dagger" flight range of 1300 km - all this gives a "long arm" with a length (sorry for the tautology) of 2000 km. With the same range as that of the "Dagger", the American AGM-183 will have a "long arm", significantly exceeding the "arm length" of the MIG + DAGGER complex. It's just that the combat radius of the same B-52 can be 8, and 9, and 10 thousand kilometers. Plus, the flight range of a hypersonic missile will give a total of not 2000 km, like ours, but 9,3 thousand, 0,3 thousand and 11,3 thousand km, respectively. The same will happen if we place the "Dagger" on the TU-95.

    All comrades with the coming and coming (for some) New Year. I raise a glass of cognac for the new year good
  12. 0
    1 January 2021 23: 52
    Happy New Year to all of you. Congratulations, last year we did not have to survive the WAR. But there are new frontiers ahead. But, ahead of a new life, warriors of light, goodness and freedom.
  13. 0
    3 January 2021 07: 23
    Am I correct in interpreting that 48N6E2 and EZ from C400 break the declared characteristics on the planned vectors? MIM 104 will not pull, but what about Patriot's "anti-missile"? Which ERINT? What is the declared speed of the target?
  14. 0
    7 January 2021 18: 22
    As before, there were no direct missile launches. Two prototypes of the AGM-183A were hung on the plane. One of them was equipped with a telemetry unit, and the second received some details of the control system.


    And how then did you get the speed and range?
  15. -1
    31 January 2021 03: 37
    Speakers are great!
    Spies from the liberda find out state secrets)))!

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