There's been a lot of talk about 'hypersonic weapons' lately, but not a lot of clear explanations. People know they’re supposed to be deadly and unstoppable. Let’s talk about it.
What Are Hypersonic Weapons?
The standard definition is a maneuverable missile or glide vehicle that moves at Mach 5 or faster. Generally regular ground-launched tactical ballistic missiles, intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and intercontinental ballistic missiles are excluded, though they move at hypersonic speeds. And some of their reentry vehicles (RVs) containing the warheads are maneuverable. However, they’re a different class of weapons. But there is some overlap. We’ll get into that.
Types Of Hypersonic Weapons
There are three main types of hypersonic weapons:
Hypersonic cruise missiles
Hypersonic glide reentry vehicles
Air-launched tactical ballistic missiles
Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
The most prevalent example of hypersonic cruise missiles is the Russian 3M22 Zircon (Tsirkon). These are being carried by Russian warships and submarines. The Zircon is allegedly capable of Mach 9 and carries a nearly 900 pound warhead. The speed is generated by it’s scramjet engine. It’s primarily designed to disable or destroy large enemy warships, especially American aircraft carriers.
These hypersonic cruise missiles don’t have the very long range of land attack cruise missiles like the Tomahawk or Kalibur. But their hypersonic speed and high maneuverability makes them very difficult or impossible for ship’s defensive systems to detect in time and engage. They don’t have the massive one ton plus warheads of previous Soviet/Russian ‘carrier killer’ anti-ship cruse missiles. They don’t need it. Just the kinetic energy of a heavy missile striking a ship at such extreme speeds is more than enough to do tremendous damage. And like just about all past Soviet/Russian large anti-ship missiles Zircon likely has a secondary land attack capability. These weapons are already currently deployed. The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov just went to sea in the north Atlantic this week, that being the first operational patrol by a vessel carrying hypersonic cruise missiles.
Another one is the BrahMos-II, a joint Russian-Indian hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile project. This has an air-launched version along with ship-, sub- and shore-launched versions. It’s still in development and may become available for export sales, as with the earlier supersonic original BrahMos.
China and other nations are developing hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles. It’s likely that land attack versions are in development as well. America is researching the technology but has decided not to immediately pursue the development of a hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile. DoD thinks other approaches, mainly stealth, are more effective, practical and affordable for the anti-ship mission.
Hypersonic Glide Reentry Vehicles
The hypersonic glide reentry vehicle (HGV) is a payload option for a ballistic missile. The missile follows its usual ballistic trajectory. But as its arcing back down towards the target it releases the glide vehicle. The glide vehicle is a maneuvering aerodynamic body like a mini-space shuttle. It can drop down to the edge of the atmosphere a glide along at speeds up to Mach 27. It can even skip off the surface of our atmosphere greatly extending its range. It can avoid enemy defenses by going around them or rapidly steering out of the way of approaching intercepting defense missiles. When it’s nearly on top of its target it dives down into the atmosphere like a regular missile reentry vehicle. And like a conventional ballistic missile RV it can still maneuver to some degree in it’s terminal dive. This makes it extremely difficult to intercept.
The Russian HGV is called Avanguard. It's a nuclear weapons delivery system used as a payload for their existing ICBMs, mainly the RS-28 Sarmat. It's already deployed.
An American system is called Prompt Global Strike. A modified Minuteman III ICBM carries a HGV with a conventional warhead (though I'd guess there's a secret nuclear warhead option). There's also an HGV payload for the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile. It's in development, but the status of the program is unclear. And there's the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), a medium-range system in development for the U.S. Army. It's a ballistic missile with a conventional warhead HGV that has a 1700 mile range. The Navy is interested in possible ship- and submarine-launched versions of this weapon for the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers and Block 5 Virginia-class attack subs.
China has several such systems. The DF-17 is a tactical HGV system with a 1500 mile range. It's an anti-ship glide vehicle meant to keep American aircraft carriers out of the waters near China during wartime The CM-401 is a smaller tactical ballistic missile with an anti-ship HGV payload. It only has a 250 mile range. It's mounted on a truck that carries two missile canisters. It's being deployed to defend artificial military islands China built in the South China Sea. China also has an HGV for it's Long March ICBMs that can deploy multiple nuclear warhead RVs from a single larger HGV at different points along its trajectory.
India's HGV is the HGV-202F. It's a payload under development for their Agni-V and -VI ICBMs.
There are also other type of glide vehicles that dive down into the atmosphere and fire up a scramjet engine, becoming a hypersonic cruise missile flying at the usual very low altitude. Several nations reportedly have such systems in development.
Air-launched tactical ballistic missiles
Some air-launched tactical ballistic missiles are just smaller battlefield tactical ballistic missiles hung under a bomber or attack aircraft. These are the least sophisticated hypersonic weapons. They have extremely limited maneuverability and are likely the easiest to intercept (though that's still quite difficult). The Russian system in the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal. It's an air-launched version of the Iskander tactical ballistic missile. The Kinzhal has been used against Ukraine on at least three occasions.
The American system is a more sophisticated dedicated new missile in development, the AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). It drops from the aircraft, ignites and rockets up to near space, then releasing an HGV. The maneuverable HGV glides down to the target at Mach 20. It's range is classified but in tests it successfully struck a target 1000 miles away. A B1-B bomber with a full internal and external load can carry 31 of these weapons.
Other Hypersonic Systems
Hypersonic systems aren’t just weapons. There's reconnaissance and cargo delivery systems as well. Some are small missile-launched single use systems. Others are larger multiple-use space planes, a follow on to the old space shuttle. Some of these are manned. And eventually there'll be hypersonic commercial passenger space planes as the tech becomes more prevalent.
Conclusion
Obviously with the huge variety of hypersonic weapons systems and the huge amount of money & resources being poured into them they're important new military technology. It’s also important to note that there’s lots of research into systems to counter hypersonic weapons. It’s always a contest between attack and defense tech.
I hope I was able to give a semi-comprehensible overview of the large and confusing array of these being developed and deployed worldwide. Hypersonic technology is another facet of the ever-increasing pace of change in our technological society. It’s transforming warfare and in the future will transform how we travel, move cargo and observe our planet. There’s a big wide hypersonic research frontier out there. Our world continues to change... at hypersonic speed.
Jack D. Ripper: Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft, er, hypersonic gap! :)