"Exaggerated Significance and Engineering Problems": Hypersonic Weapons Criticized in Britain

Cruise missiles, which can move at a stable speed of more than Mach 5 along an unpredictable trajectory and not reveal themselves until the very last moment, have become a reality. However, hypersonic weapon will not lead to a revolution in military affairs. This opinion is expressed in the British publication RUSI

The real value of hypersonic weapons

... As indicated, against the background of "intimidation from Russia" in the form of constant tests of hypersonic cruise missiles, the Pentagon increased funding for their creation from $ 0,8 in 2017 to $ 3,8 billion.

Hypersonic weapons represent the most significant advancements in missile technology since ICBMs. Due to their extreme speed and maneuvering ability, hypersonic weapons are able to undermine the nuclear deterrent and create cracks in strategic stability by the mid-2020s.

- the author writes about the stereotyped approach he criticizes, pointing out that hypersonic weapons have the advantages of both ballistic missiles (speed) and cruise missiles (accuracy).

However, as he believes, the fascination with this type of weapon “is not technically justified; politicians tend to overestimate the capabilities of these systems. " Participation in the hypersonic weapons race for the United States, Russia, and China "is largely due to national pride and prestige."

According to the author, the impact of hypersonic weapons on nuclear strategic stability will be minimal, the real combat value will manifest itself only at the tactical level due to the possibility of effectively destroying command posts, strike groups of the Navy and US missile defense.

Disadvantages of hypersonic weapons

At the same time, hypersonic weapons do not look so impressive at intercontinental distances - unlike the "good old" long-range ballistic missiles. According to the author, firstly, hypersound is presented as a revolutionary means of overcoming missile defense, but effective missile defense did not exist, even from ICBMs. Second, the necessary trade-offs between speed, range, maneuverability and accuracy imply limitations on striking power.

As explained, the "extreme speed" of these weapons drastically limits decision-making time, but ICBMs also operate. In addition, it leads to the formation of an ionized gas stream. This heating is able to reveal the location of the missile and can cut off the navigation link, which ultimately will negatively affect the accuracy of the strike. The maneuverability inherent in hypersonic weapons requires additional fuel consumption and, as a result, can lead to a decrease in flight speed on the final trajectory below Mach 5.

According to the author, all this casts doubt on the "inflated significance" of hypersonic weapons. For Russia, it is mainly a means of compensating for the shift in strategic stability since the US withdrawn from the ABM Treaty in 2002 - and this despite the fact that ICBMs are in a more advantageous position at intercontinental ranges. Unlike the Russian Federation, China is developing hypersonic weapons to dominate the South China Sea, considering them as a means of overcoming American missile defense systems in the Asia-Pacific region. Finally, the United States was forced to join this race against the backdrop of the successes achieved by Moscow and Beijing.

The over-enthusiasm of national leaders for hypersonic weapons, which continues to suffer from serious engineering problems, coupled with unstable relations between the great powers, creates a rather fertile ground for misconceptions and unintended escalation. It's time to end the "hypersonic hyperbole"

- the author concludes, stating the alleged "exaggerated importance" of this type of weapon and "engineering problems."

Is it because Britain and the United States do not have such weapons? ..

Comments

[Kasym]

So the point is to find such an engineering solution and create new materials for such weapons to appear.
The biggest disadvantage of hypersonic missiles is their cost. These missiles cannot be cheap.
And the "limitation of striking power" can be solved with special ammunition.

[Cowbra]

The trick is that E is equal to em tse square. that is, the speed itself is already the power of the warhead))) Actually, the railgun supplied as a wunderwafl generally shoots blanks, but due to the kinetic energy - warheads are not needed. And a hypersonic blank, having flown into an aircraft carrier))) Gee.
And in general - the usual small-BREAKHAN nonsense. about the plasma around - this is how the plasma antenna technology was developed in Russia. And so on. disadvantages, of course, are, the main one is cost. Well, we all have them.
In short, Krylov's fable "The Fox and the Grapes". They can't do it, that's why - "I didn't really want to." Yeah, I believe

[lucul]

They can't do it, that's why - "I didn't really want to." Yeah, I believe

They can't just do it, they can't even calculate the effectiveness of hypersonic weapons)))
And what did you want - this is the famous British education)))

[hrych]

Quote: lucul

the effectiveness of hypersonic weapons cannot be calculated)))

So, the main flight in the stratosphere (and even the mesosphere, if not a ramjet engine, but like a Dagger with a turbojet engine and a Kh-32 with a liquid propellant engine), the vacuum and resistance there are hundreds of times less. Diving to the target and passing the troposphere in a few seconds, when the apparatus does not have time to melt from overheating. Or, the SBS is immediately detonated at the boundary of the atmospheric layers, when there is sufficient density for an effective shock wave. It's a nightmare for air defense / missile defense.

[Bez 310]

Quote: hrych

X-32 with LRE

Why do you consider the X-32 a hypersonic missile?
Did the Internet prompt you, or did you decide so?

[hrych]

Quote: Bez 310

Why

Patamushta In the Internet, on the contrary, she is denied hypersound. They give Mach 4,5, i.e. copy X-22 data. Nooo, at the expense of the Germans (a joint venture, your money is our product), a hypersonic, seven-speed, stratospheric laboratory - Rainbow D22 was created on the basis of the X-2. Where the tanks were increased by reducing the payload (SBCH and GOS). And the Kh-32 is the result of this work, because it received a more compact SBS and a modern seeker with a radar, like that of a fighter, and is capable of capturing a target not tens of kilometers from it, but hundreds, naturally raising the radio horizon, flying in the stratosphere by 30-40 km ... Up to 300 km or more, while capturing the target. Unlike those who did not follow the development of our hypersonic devices, the rest are well aware that the entire hypersound of the Russian Federation is based on tests within the framework of the Rainbow D2 program. Dagger and Zircon use algorithms developed on Rainbow D2. And this is the essence of the modernized X-22, aka the X-32, only in profile. The Kh-32 was put into service in 2016 without fanfare, like the Dagger for several years earlier.

[Bez 310]

Quote: hrych

Give 4,5 Maha, i.e. copy X-22 data.

Do you know the X-22 data so well?
In this case, I will ask you as a specialist -
and what kind of "device" is in the X-22, it is called OCHM,
and at what value did it work?

[hrych]

It is not interesting and does not matter. How the X-22 became the mother of Soviet supersonic missiles. So she also became the mother of Russian hypersonic missiles. The algorithms for supersonic anti-ship missiles were worked out on the Kh-22, after which the shipborne, supersonic Basalt on the P-35 meringue appeared. On the Kh-22, the algorithms of hypersonic missiles and the material base of onboard electronics were worked out. Therefore, we surpassed the enemy by a head. X-22 needs to be erected all over the country. This is the Holy Rocket.

[Bez 310]

Quote: hrych

It is not interesting and does not matter.

It matters, but not for a person, all knowledge
which consists in the ability to copy and paste.
OCHM is the limiter of the number M, and it is set to the value,
excluding flight speed 4,5 M.
I already asked you - stop mindlessly copying and carrying
to VO data from the Internet, for the most part these
open data does not correspond to reality.

Quote: hrych

The Kh-22 became the mother of Soviet supersonic missiles.

You are completely lying!
Before the Kh-22 there was a KSR-5 rocket that flew
at supersonic speed.

[hrych]

Fire better VO readers from your comments like, they say, nothing, nothing, I'm PLASHNIK, but I don't know the main anti-submarine aircraft of Russia

Quote: Bez 310

Before the Kh-22 there was a KSR-5 missile

And nothing that the beginning of the development of the X-22 falls on 1958, and for the KSR-5 in 1962. And nothing that the KSR-5 was based on the scheme and design of the X-22 rocket as its reduced version. Those. KSR-5 - the essence of the modification of the X-22 Teach a story, or something, you will comment more competently and more professionally sow panic by banging Russian weapons. Of course, the X-22 reached hypersound before, no limitation of the number of swing did not interfere with it. For example, in the experimental version of the Kh-22B, where it walked along a ballistic trajectory. It was not accepted only because of the absence then of external target designation, the absence of long-range RGSN, etc., which has now been implemented, 50 years later.

[Bez 310]

I have to agree with you that despite
the fact that the KSR-5 was put into service earlier
X-22, but work on the X-22 was started earlier, and on
On the basis of these developments, the KSR-5 was made and adopted.
Tell me, is there any area where you
understand something without the Internet, into which the data
are brought in by the same illiterate propagandists like
you?
Although, you can not answer, these are your "editorials"
already tired. Don't bother yourself ...

[hrych]

Tell me, don’t tell

[Vladimir Mashkov]

It's funny, but the Briton is like that old rooster from the anecdote, which chased and cackled after young chickens, got tired, stopped, proudly putting his hands on his hips, and said: "Yes, I didn't really want to!"

[Boa kaa]

Quote: lucul

Well this is a famous British education

Well, don't tell me ... Our moneybags-idolaters consider it very prestigious to teach their offspring in Cambridge and Oxford ...
But I do not know. I'm talking about:

USA were forced join this race against the backdrop of the successes achieved by Moscow and Beijing.

THIS must be so twisted! It turns out that the evil RUSSIANS and Kitaisi imposed the Yankees on the RACE in the field of hypersound! They are poor - white and fluffy - elves from the hail on the mountain - FORCED to respond to the machinations of a gas station country with an economy torn to shreds ...
Well, damn it, miracles on the bends! And only ... And you say there is no PROPAGANDA in the West! and the most truthful and correct media in the West!
Oh well...

[Kasym]

Vitaly, the funny thing (with education) is that their famous Eton adopted the Kolmogorov training program for high school students.

[Sergey Melnik]

Just about, they, as usual, cannot fully understand the full range of its application, let alone create it. Therefore, when they begin to apply it to them, it will cause another wild amazement and phrases like: "but it also turns out that way." , both in the development and creation of new types of weapons, and in the training of personnel and equipping with new weapons. They are already serving the purchase of old samples as some kind of outstanding event.

[vargo]

The problems described are problems for those who have not yet solved them. Where did he get the idea that these problems cannot be solved? Of course it is convenient for them (the Britons) to justify their special view of the latecomers to the race. They say "yes, I didn't really want to, but I don't need that in general."
When a rocket arrives at their destroyer at a speed that does not allow it to be shot down, a number of zhurnalyugs may sober up. The military probably does not suffer from such naivety.

[Titus_2]

Well, that is, they calm themselves down, because they themselves have no competence in these matters.

[Ross xnumx]

Quote: Titus_2

they themselves have no competence in these matters.

Yes, they would have mastered the principle of cavitation, but they dared to discuss what they do not have ...

The real combat value will manifest itself only at the tactical level

On the islands - just right.

[Chief Officer Lom]

And the grapes are green!

[Cormoran]

The real combat value will manifest itself only at the tactical level ... oh yes, these are the Anglo-Saxons.

[Andrey Moskvin]

ONLY destruction of command posts, AUG, and overcoming missile defense.
We don’t need any more. Let the peaceful negros live.

[Lech from Android.]

The article will be fair if it replaces the words hypersonic weapons with the F-35 aircraft which is praised by the Americans.

[Ross xnumx]

... real combat value will manifest itself only at the tactical level due to the ability to effectively destroy command posts, strike groups of the Navy and US missile defense.

Oh, these British scientists and not really.
Exactly! The combat value of such weapons is the effectiveness of their use at the tactical depth of defense (offensive). Russia is not going to fan the world fire in spite of the bourgeoisie. So, to poke AUG and give cones to "especially arrogant", threatening from "nearby" ...

[Nychego]

I hope someday an adventurous novel will be written about hypersonic weapons: a story that began as a bluff, became a way of removing billions from budgets and turned into a weapon that is unlikely to kill anyone (if it is used on a target, it will most likely be mean the onset of the version of History, in which there will be no novels).

[Polite Moose]

"Exaggerated Significance and Engineering Problems": Hypersonic Weapons Criticized in Britain

What else can they say? British classics. What is debauchery? Debauchery is a sexual act in which you do not participate.

[Fedorovich]

Fox and grapes, cho.

[Illanatol]

real combat value will manifest itself only at the tactical level due to the ability to effectively destroy command posts, naval strike groups and US missile defense.

If the author considers this to be a "tactical level", then an expert from him as from a member of an impotent sledgehammer

[ViacheslavS]

Maybe somewhere, that is, such information (like it shouldn't be a secret), all these latest sensational hypersonic missiles have hypersound only in airless space or throughout the entire flight path, including the final segment and, accordingly, the work of the seeker and the possibility of some maneuvers and corrections, the atmosphere also takes place in dense layers. It's just that if this is so, then the whole naval war is essentially moving to a new level, and every AUG will have a very hard time.

[anclevalico]

When you don't have one, then it's time to speculate about the shortcomings ...

[gguess]

The arms race is a political pastime for which the peoples have to pay too much! Putin correctly said: "We need to end this idle chatter and sit down at the negotiating table" ...

[Basarev]

Don't you think this is a somewhat fraudulent hypersound? Not the same thing at all - 5 swings in the mesosphere or near-surface layers. Now, if the rocket did not leave the troposphere and honestly gave out 5x330 all the way - it would be honest.

[Eugene-Eugene]

under certain conditions and MiGs play hyper

[B1 Lancer]

Hypersound has big problems with accuracy! For some reason, the apologetics of this type of weapons are silent about this! In Britain, they are right, the topic of hypersound will not receive further development, and will remain a vestige of the 2008-2020 era!

[Two]

But their own work in this area did not stop!