I don't know much about them. Are they ballistic or cruise missiles? How are they launched and what are their launch platforms? What are the most prominent operational or under development missiles? Can they be used as anti-ship missiles? Also, I'm very interested in US, NATO or Japan development of hypersonic missiles.
Yeah
Based yeah posters
Yeah x2
a meme
But if it's a meme then why is the US developing multiple types of them?
Pretty much all of the currently existing ones are memes because they're just existing ballistic missile systems that got rebranded.
What the US is working on is an actual working air breathing hypersonic missile that neither Russia nor China have working examples of yet.
So what exactly makes a hypersonic missile not a meme?
He just said
> the US is working on is an actual working air breathing hypersonic missile
an air-breathing ram jet hypersonic cruise missile is what people are ACTUALLY thinking of when they talk about hypersonic missiles.
Does such a hypersonic missile maintain hypersonic speed for most of its flight including maneuvering and impact?
yes, except for impact
Does that mean it slows down before impact?
Yes, when it enters lower atmosphere it slows down because of air resistance and to be able to see the target with its sensors. There's no way around this.
HAWC/HACM is more than likely capable of terminal hypersonic velocity, it might be lower than it's highest speed in flight at altitude, but it can still likely remain hypersonic or VERY high supersonic at impact.
It won't see anything if that's the case even if it manages to survive the scorching heat of atmospheric drag without melting.
BMs hardly maneuver, ever, even the modern quasi-ballistic ones. They fly a fairly predictable path and cannot change their direction considerably.
Overall though and for anti shipping use they offer questionable capabilities compared to the weapons US already fields. That's why they shoehorned the project into the airborne rapid response weapon role for time sensitive targets that might evade slower missiles during their flight time, regardless of how unlikely that is to happen. It's basically a weapon without a purpose for US that's been developed as a response to the media hype.
Here's a good explanation if you want to read more details on the topic.
https://www.quora.com/How-fast-can-a-missile-fly-at-low-altitude-and-still-receive-radio-IR-or-radar-guidance-Hypersonic-missiles-can-fly-at-mach-10-but-how-much-do-they-slow-down-before-hitting-their-targets-and-does-this-leave-them/answer/Abhirup-Sengupta-5
ARRW and the eventual HACM would basically fulfill the Prompt Global Strike requirements.
Their fast speed means quick delivery time, which is useful for shock and awe campaigns and non-nuclear pre-emptive strikes.
To be fair you don't need that fast delivery time as much when you have things like tactical tomahawk which can loiter around some time after launch or take a longer path so that it arrives at the same time with other missiles, as well as that satelite datalink some variants of them also have that can give them precise commands midcourse.
But then what's the point since it can be intercepted just like a normal ballistic missile?
...it's not a ballistic missile anon, it could be coming in at a fairly low altitude on final approach.
It's a cruise missile, it can probably even loiter for a short period if needed.
>it could be coming in at a fairly low altitude on final approach.
The major technical problem with hypersonic missiles is that flying in hypersonic speed at low altitude is extremely difficult. If the US can solve this, they will have a huge edge over anyone else but until we see such capability demonstrated, it's safe to assume that they will come down from high altitude. While it may not be like a ballistic missile, the slower speed approaching impact may make the hypersonic missile not much more than a normal supersonic cruise missile.
Yeah, the US is being fairly tight lipped about it as well, all we really know is that HAWC flew at an altitude of over 60,000 feet at a speed of at least Mach 5 over a distance of at least 350 miles.
That's about as vague as they could be.
Yes, the entire point of making it air breathing is so that it can maintain hypersonic speeds through its entire flight.
Currently, the only ways to achieve hypersonic velocity is either taking advantage Earth's gravity to accelerate during reentry on the terminal phase of a ballistic flight path, or packing as much rocket fuel as you can on a conventional missile and hope it can coast the rest of the way to its target once the fuel runs out.
It depends
How is Avangard different from any other MIRV? Has it actually DEMONSTRATED an ability beyond regular old MIRVs?
It's supposed to be a HGV but nobody's seen them and there's doubt about its operational status. It's housed as 1 warhead per 1 ancient soviet UR-100whatever missile made in the early 80s, with at most 2-4 actively deployed total.
Same is true for Ziron, it's just lockheed renders of the X-51 waverider.
>Ziron
Zircon
>Are they ballistic or cruise missiles?
The can be either. Hypersonic just means maneuverable at Hypersonic speed.