Commentary by Russian military blogger Andrey Chervonets.
The United States launched a new hypersonic warhead from an air carrier. The previous three launches were unsuccessful.
The speed of the rocket declared in the message from the USA reached just 5M, that is, 6120 km/h. This is the boundary speed between supersonic and hypersonic, that is, the lower limit of hypersonic speed.
With the most optimistic development of events for the Americans, they will be able to reach the bar of the Russian Federation in five to ten years. But rather much later.
On the southern coast of California on May 14, a hypersonic cruise missile with a solid-propellant booster and a guided warhead was launched from a B-52H strategic bomber. These were the first successful tests of a rocket from an air carrier. The head of the US Air Force weapons program noted that this launch was a great achievement for the development team - that the speed of the warhead was five times the speed of sound.
For comparison:
- The Soviet serial supersonic cruise missile Kh-22, created in the 1970s, reached 3.5. Its modification X-32, first tested in 1998 - Mach 4.6, also later went into series.
- The Tsirkon hypersonic missile, which is already in service in Russia , is capable of reaching speeds of "about Mach 9 at a range of more than 1,000 km."
- The Kinzhal hypersonic complex, which is in service and has already been used in combat, is capable of reaching a speed of Mach 10-12, attacking at a distance of 2,000-3,000 km (depending on the MiG-31 or Tu-22 carrier) maneuvering along the entire flight path.
- In the period from 2012 to 2020, the Russian armed forces conducted five successful launches of the Avangard intercontinental ballistic missile with hypersonic gliding winged units. Already in series production. Develops speed up to Mach 28.
All these complexes, in addition to being able to maneuver in flight, have a powerful warhead of 400-500 kg and a full-fledged homing system. They are built on different principles.
"Dagger" - "motorless hypersound." Simply put, an air-to-ground ballistic missile, which at the final stage of engine operation has hypersonic speed.
"Zircon" - a cruise missile with a ramjet hypersonic engine, the so-called. "motor hypersound.
"Avangard "- is launched (accelerated) not just by a starting accelerator, like the Zircon, but is accelerated by a solid-propellant rocket.
The Americans need to carry out a titanic work in the next ten years and cut hundreds of billions (trillions?) To at least come close to similar characteristics of hypersonic missiles.
