Recently, only a very lazy person has not spoken about the development of hypersonic weapons. It is worth saying that the hypersonic speed itself, that is, the speed with Mach 5 and higher, has long ceased to be something out of the ordinary, no matter how paradoxical it looks at first glance. Back in 1959, the United States tested the North American X-15 manned hypersonic aircraft for the first time in history, which proved its ability to fly at speeds above 6,000 kilometers per hour. The combat equipment of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine ballistic missiles also develops hypersonic speed.
What, then, is the meaning of innovations like the American Hypersonic Weapons System, which was presented not so long ago? In short, a weapon claiming the status of "hypersonic" should not only be able to achieve tremendous speeds, but also be able to carry out a controlled flight using aerodynamic forces. Roughly speaking, to maneuver if necessary, up to the moment of hitting the target.
There are many problems along the way. Due to the high-speed flow at the frontal point of the apparatus, the gas is heated to extremely high temperatures - up to several thousand degrees. The second difficulty is called the neutralization of the shielding effect of the glowing plasma cloud surrounding the rocket, which prevents the passage of commands, thereby reducing the ability of the product to effectively aim at the target.
Moreover, these problems represent only the tip of the iceberg. It is unclear, for example, how much hypersonic weapons will cost and who exactly should act as carriers of such systems. However, none of these challenges worries the creators of hypersonic missiles: neither the Russians, nor the Americans, nor the Europeans, nor the Chinese. Moreover, every year more and more hypersonic missile projects appear. Every year, both the West and the East demonstrate an increasing willingness to invest in such weapons systems.
The reason is clear: for all the complexities of developing a hypersonic weapon, it will be much more difficult to intercept it than a supersonic aircraft. All this forces countries to look for an "antidote". The United States can get it first.
Three giants
In September, the blog of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technology bmpd reported that on August 30, 2019, the Missile Defense Agency issued three American corporations - Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon - contracts for the conceptual development of anti-hypersonic weapons. This is all called the Hypersonic Defense Weapon Systems Concept.
Lockheed Martin's division called Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control was awarded a $ 4.4 million contract to develop the Valkyrie Interceptor Terminal Hypersonic Defense. Boeing has received a $ 4.3 million contract to work on what is called the Hypervelocity Interceptor Concept for Hypersonic Weapons.
Finally, Raytheon was awarded a $ 4.4 million contract for the SM3-HAW concept, which experts believe may be based on the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 antimissile family. By the way, it has already proven its effectiveness. Back in 2008, the SM-3 launched from the cruiser Lake Erie hit the emergency reconnaissance satellite USA-193 located at an altitude of 247 kilometers, which was moving at a speed of 27 thousand kilometers per hour. The warhead is kinetic. When aiming, a high-resolution matrix infrared seeker is used.
Work in all three areas should be completed by May 2, 2020. These contracts are just a fraction of the tremendous effort that the United States will invest in creating interceptors capable of effectively countering hypersonic threats. Earlier, Deputy Defense Secretary Michael Griffin said that protection against hypersonic weapons will require an investment of efforts in several main areas at once, in particular - the commissioning of new radar stations, the launch of new spacecraft into orbit and, finally, the creation of new interceptors, which we wrote about. above.
How real are the fears of the Americans? Domestic experts see Russia as an almost unconditional leader in this direction.
“Hypersonic weapons are indeed a domestic development. We went to it a long enough way, because the Americans, in principle, learned how to launch at hypersonic speed back in the 1950s, when they were developing ballistic missiles. But we managed to manage hypersonic flight at such speeds. The Americans did not succeed , - said not so long ago the well-known Russian military specialist Alexei Leonkov.
For the sake of fairness, we note: the expert is not quite right. If only because of the veil of secrecy that exists in the case of hypersonic missiles. However, something is known even to mere mortals. For example, that the Kh-47M2 "Dagger" can be attributed to a hypersonic missile with a big stretch, since, in fact, we have an aeroballistic complex: an analogue of the Soviet Kh-15 or AS-16 "Kickback" according to NATO classification. Which, at a certain stage of the flight, could also develop a speed of Mach 5, however, could not maintain it throughout the entire flight path. As for the "Zircon", there is not a lot of news about it recently, and the timing of its adoption into service and its characteristics are still unknown. This is not counting the loud, but sometimes contradictory statements of officials, where the range, weight and types of carriers change.
ABM must be economical
The United States is not doing well either. Not all of the promising areas of missile defense are satisfactory to the Pentagon. So, in early September it became known that the military decided to suspend the program for the development of beam weapons on neutral particles, which they wanted to use to intercept Russian and Chinese missiles.
“We will focus our efforts on other areas of directed energy weapons development, on which we are also working now, in particular, on lasers. We need lasers with a power of hundreds of kilowatts, and we give priority attention to this area , - said the Deputy Minister of Defense.
Griffin also noted that high-power microwave weapons are another promising area.
This is a completely normal process: some projects survive and get a start in life, while others are cut. However, the desire of the Americans to obtain reliable protection against various hypersonic threats is quite obvious. As well as the fact that interest in hypersonic missile interceptors will grow along with interest directly in the missiles themselves.
