A hypersonic weapon is a weapon capable of travelling at hypersonic speed, defined as between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound or about 1 to 5 miles per second (1.6 to 8.0 km/s).[1]
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Below such speeds, weapons would be characterized as subsonic or supersonic, while above such speeds, the molecules of the atmosphere disassociate into a plasma which makes control and communication difficult.
There are multiple types of hypersonic weapon:
- Hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV): missile warheads which maneuver and glide through the atmosphere at high speeds after an initial ballistic launch phase[2][1]
- Hypersonic cruise missile: cruise missiles which use air-breathing engines such as scramjets to reach high speeds[2][1]
- Hypersonic aircraft using air-breathing engines such as scramjets to reach high speeds[1]
- Guns which fire cannon-launched guided projectiles. These may be developments of traditional artillery or novel technologies such as railguns.[1]
Other types of weapons, such as traditional ballistic missiles, may achieve hypersonic speeds but are not typically classified as hypersonic weapons due to lacking the use of aerodynamic lift to allow their reentry vehicles to maneuver under guided flight within the atmosphere.[3][4]
History
The Silbervogel was the first design for a hypersonic weapon and was developed by German scientists in the 1930s.[5]
In the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia was seen to have fielded operational weapons and used them for combat. The Kremlin presents new hypersonic weapons as supposedly capable of overcoming "any" foreign missile defense systems, with the "pre-nuclear deterrence" concept contained in its 2014 iteration of the official Russian Military Doctrine.[6] A volley of Russian hypersonic missiles were launched at Kyiv in January 2023.[7]
By country
See also Hypersonic flight#Hypersonic weapons, National Defense Space Architecture
Plans, programs and projects for such weaponry include:
Multinational
Brazil
China
- DF-ZF mounted on the DF-17
- YJ-21. According to a South China Morning Post report, in December 2023, Chinese hypersonic anti-ship missiles went undetected in a computer-simulated attack against the US warships in a Chinese research lab.[8][9] The missile range was reported to be similar to that of YJ-21.[9]
France
- VERAS hypersonic glide vehicle (first French program on hypersonics; launched in 1965 and cancelled in 1971)[10][11]
- ASN4G hypersonic air-launched cruise missile (under development; technological work on the missile began in the early 1990s and scheduled to succeed the ASMP in the pre-strategic deterrence role in 2035)[12][13]
- LEA hypersonic cruise demonstrator (project launched in 2003 to validate technologies for the ASN4G program)[14]
- Prométhée scramjet missile program (little is known about the program beyond the fact that a test, codenamed ASTRÉE, of a mixed ramjet capable of successive subsonic and supersonic combustion was carried out in the United States in either 2021 or 2022)[12][13]
- VMaX (Véhicule Manœuvrant Expérimental) hypersonic glide vehicle (first flight test took place on June 26, 2023, from the DGA's site in Biscarrosse and was successful)[15][16][17][18][19]
- VMaX-2 hypersonic glide vehicle (first flight test scheduled for 2024 or 2025)[20][12][13]
- Espadon hypersonic combat aircraft program[21][22]
Germany
India
Iran
- Fattah-1 – hypersonic ballistic missile unveiled in June 2023[26]
- Fattah-2 – hypersonic cruise missile unveiled in November 2023[27]
Japan
- Hyper Velocity Gliding Projectile
- Hypersonic Cruise Missile (HCM)[24]
North Korea
Russia
- 3M22 Zircon
- Avangard (hypersonic glide vehicle)
- Kh-47M2 Kinzhal
- Kh-95 long-range hypersonic cruise missile[28]
- R-37M
- Zmeevik anti-ship missile[citation needed]
- Gremlin Hypersonic Guided Rocket (GZUR)[29]
South Korea
- Hycore cruise missile (scramjet two-stage missile)[30]
United Kingdom
- HVX (Hypersonic Air Vehicle Experimental) demonstrator program announced in July 2022[31]
- Concept V, a single-engine hypersonic aircraft concept unveiled under the HVX program[32]
- Hypersonic cruise missile by 2030[33]
United States
- Boeing X-51 Waverider[34]
- DARPA Falcon Project (Hypersonic Weapon System (HWS)
- DARPA Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC)[35]
- Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (Air Force) [36][37][38]
- Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (Army) and Conventional Prompt Strike (Navy) boost-glide system, both will use the same Common-Hypersonic Glide Body HGV [39]
- OpFires (DARPA) [40][41]
- Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface (HALO) air-launched anti-ship missile under Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Increment 2 (OASuW Inc 2) program (Navy)[42][43]
- AIM-260 JATM (expected)
- Lockheed Martin Mako[44][45]
See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from Kelley M. Sayler. Hypersonic Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress (PDF). Congressional Research Service.