The US Army’s Scientific Wing Darpa announced recent successful testing of a HAWC (Hypersonic-breathing Weapon Concept).
AMERICA
Although the US military does have a variety of hypersonic weapon programs in its Navy, Army, and Air Force branches, most are still under development and very secretive.
These programs, which are more traditional hypersonic weapons and strike at high altitudes than any orbital bombment systems strike from space (which the Chinese have been revealed to have created tis week), are still known.
US Hypersonic weapons have never been successful tested. The Air Force’s GM-183ARRW has only recently been validated. It is intended to be fired from large-sized bomber aircraft.
The rocket then speeds up to hypersonic speeds, reaching speeds of 15,345mph. It uses a supersonic combustion jet to hit targets within 1,000 yards. Donald Trump refered to a ‘super duper missile’ while in office and this is believed to be the AGM-183 ARRW.
Navy’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon submarine launch is scheduled to become operational in 2023. It will cover 1,725 mile.
Darpa, the US army’s scientific wing, recently announced successful tests of what it called a HAWC missile (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept) but kept details such as range, speed and payload secret.
It uses oxygen found in the air as its fuel, marking the first successful test for that type of weapon since 2013.
According to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, (DARPA), the missile was built by Raytheon and released from an airplane just seconds before Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engine started, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said.
This engine compresses the air entering it and adds hydrocarbon fuel. It can achieve speeds up to 1,700 meters per hour, which is five times that of sound.
Earlier this year, a test of a hypersonic missile from the U.S. Air Force was abandoned after it was unable to complete its launch sequence.
The Pentagon flew a hypersonic glider vehicle to Hawaii’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on March 19, last year. It declared the flight a success, and called it “a milestone toward the department’s goal to have hypersonic warfighting capabilities by 2020.”
Contrary to Russia, America says that its hypersonic weapon technology isn’t being developed for nuclear weapons. The U.S. hypersonic weapon would need to be even more accurate and will face additional technical difficulties.
NASA’s 2004 experimental unmanned hypersonic airplane X-43 achieved 7,366mph using a scramjet motor, which is the current record.
DailyMail.com published a report in 2019 that said the engine for Northrop Grumman’s missile, Raytheon-designed Missile would be made using a 3D printer.
DARPA stated last year it had been working with Aerojet Rocketdyne for a project worth nearly $20 million to develop a hypersonic launcher that can intercept missiles from mid-air.
Russia launched the Zircon hypersonic missile from its submarine. It also has Avangard hypersonic missiles that can be used to launch nuclear-capable Avangards.
RUSSIA
Russia launched the Zircon hypersonic missile from a submarine recently. Since late 2019, the Avangard hypersonic-capable missiles have been in service. Avangard missiles can reach Mach 27 while changing their course and altitude.
Russia’s hypersonic weapon, the Zircon is capable of traveling 621 miles at a speed 9.800mph.
However, the missile is able to fly below the atmosphere. It uses fuel to accelerate to hypersonic speeds and not the Earth’s orbit.
Earlier this month, Russia announced it has successfully test-fired the Zircon from a nuclear submarine for the first time.
According to Moscow’s defence ministry, the 6,670mph missile hit a target in Barents Sea.
Russia claimed that it has successfully flown the missile’s new age from both a frigate (the Admiral Gorshkov) and from a coast mount. However, it was not launched previously from a submarine.
Moscow’s state-controlled TV has identified the Zircon as Vladimir Putin’s preferred weapon to eliminate coastal American cities during an atomic war.
He declared that this missile was ‘truly unrivalled anywhere in the globe’ and Russia boasted of its ‘unstoppability’ against Western defenses.
Putin announced in 2018 that a new array of hypersonic weapons was being developed. He stated they could hit any place in the world, and would not need to be stopped by a missile shield.
Next year will see the Zircon enter service. It will be first deployed by Admiral Golovko, a frigate that carries stealth technology.
The missile’s primary purpose is to destroy enemy ships. Reports suggest that its range may be between 188-620 miles.
However, there are unconfirmed reports that its actual range is approximately 1,200 miles.
Moscow has warned of foreign spies trying to steal the secrets and kept secret design and development of this missile system.
The Sarmat is one of several hypersonic rockets Russia is currently deploying, along with the 188-tonne Sarmat, also known in West as Satan-2. This will be Russia’s biggest nuclear beast and it is scheduled for deployment next year.
In May, Russia said it tested three ‘invincible’ hypersonic ‘Satan 2’ missiles that some have said could wipe out areas the size of England and Wales.
China’s dummy weapon was launched into space by a Long March 2C Rocket (pictured). It was part of a mid-August test that China did not reveal at the time. The information was finally revealed this weekend by the security experts who had been assigned to determine its purpose.
CHINA
China’s hypersonic orbital bomber system, which was tested by China in August, reportedly has a speed of 21,000mph and can strike from space.
China’s new weapon, which is based on the concept of a warhead being launched into space and then having it orbit the Earth before reaching a target, was originally developed by Soviets in 1960s.
Called a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, or FOBS, it was developed to evade powerful US radar arrays and missile defence systems.
They work by detecting ICBMs being launched, which are very long-range missiles capable of carrying nukes. Once they’re tracked into space, they then fire at warheads to try and destroy them.
It is possible due to the predictable trajectory of ICBMs (and their warheads) that rises into space – which makes them very easy to spot. Defence crews can calculate where they will be aimed in order to shoot them out of sight.
FOBS seeks to overcome these defenses and fire their warheads on a flatter trajectory with Earth’s gravity.
They are therefore not within the radar detection range of most radar arrays, making them harder to track. This makes it harder for warheads to be shot down, as their trajectory can’t always be calculated.
Because orbit allows for unlimited range, warheads can fire at their target in any direction. This allows for avoiding These radar systems point generally at a fixed spot above the sky; in America’s instance, it is over the North Pole.
Meanwhile, China has also unveiled a hypersonic medium-range missile, the DF-17, in 2019, which can travel around 2,000 kilometres and can carry nuclear warheads.
In October, China deployed the DF 17 missile to coastal areas in preparation for a possible invasion of Taiwan.
According to earlier reports, the weapon is capable to travel up to 2,500 kilometers (1,550 mi) at speeds up to 7,680 km/h (12,360 KPH), or 10 times that of sound, when carrying a nuke warhead.
The aircraft carriers in its vicinity have been called “death sentences” by the media.
Hypersonic missiles can travel more than five times faster in the upper atmosphere, or approximately 6,200km per hour (3.850 mph). While this is slower than an intercontinental bombistic missile, hypersonic aircraft can maneuver towards a target and away from its defenses.
A combination of a glider vehicle and a missile capable of launching it partly into orbit, a fractional orbital bombing system (FOBS), could be used to deprive adversaries both in terms traditional defenses as well as reaction time.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, are capable of carrying nuclear warheads along ballistic trajectories. These trajectories travel into space and never reach orbit.
China claimed Monday that August’s test of a spacecraft was not an attack missile, but a routine exercise.