The fact that Russia is developing hypersonic weapons, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Yuri Borisov announced at the end of November last year. The results of these efforts may become available to the military over the next 10 years, but already today experts say: two heavy nuclear missile cruisers (TARKR) "Peter the Great" and "Admiral Nakhimov", as well as promising nuclear submarines of project 885M "Yasen-M" and submarines of the fifth generation "Husky" will be equipped, among other things, with hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles (ASM) "Zircon".
According to information from open sources, the Zircon missile system is the latest development of the Military Industrial Corporation NPO Mashinostroyenia (part of the Tactical Missile Armament Corporation). The work on the project is of a closed nature. It is only known that a missile, the length of which is from 8 to 10 m, will be capable of accelerating to Mach 5-10 and hitting targets at ranges of 300-500 kilometers.
Today, the Russian Navy is armed with anti-ship missiles with a maximum speed of Mach 2-2, 5. And the speed of Mach 2, 5 is the maximum for modern air defense systems of a potential enemy. Thus, "Zircon" is able to easily reach the target, ahead of air defense systems.
Former commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral Vladimir Valuev, believes that for new missile weapons it is necessary to build new surface and submarine ships or re-equip existing ones. Hypersound is also beneficial from an economic point of view - the price of a missile is incomparably lower than the price of an aircraft carrier: $ 1-2 million versus $ 5-10 billion. In addition, NATO countries will have to modernize their anti-missile defense at the high speeds of our missile.
However, there are many skeptics who believe that the appearance of mass hypersonic weapons, especially strategic ones, should not be expected. Operational-tactical weapons of this kind may appear in the near future, they say, but worthy anti-missile defenses will also appear.
Hero of Labor of Russia and Hero of Socialist Labor of the USSR Herbert Efremov (scientific advisor to the head of the NPO Mashinostroyenia military-industrial complex) focuses on the engine of the future hypersonic missile. In his opinion, ramjet engines are needed for a long motion of an object in the atmosphere using hypersonic sound. In the existing ones, it is not possible to ensure the stable operation of the combustion chambers. And it is not known whether these problems will be resolved in the near future. Other types of engines, in particular turbo-direct-flow ones, have been created for more than half a century, but without success.
However, there was hope. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin recently announced that the so-called detonation rocket engine (DRM) has been successfully tested in Russia. The novelty was developed by NPO Energomash im. Academician V. P. Glushko”within the framework of the program of the Foundation for Advanced Research. A detonation rocket engine is one of the ways to create hypersonic aircraft capable of reaching speeds of Mach 4-6. On the basis of such engines, it is possible to create hypersonic weapons. The effect is that a detonation engine with a much smaller size and mass of fuel can provide the same thrust as a huge modern liquid-propellant rocket engine.
The problem is how to ensure that the fuel and oxidizer of the rocket engine do not burn, as they do now, but explode without destroying the combustion chamber - to make the explosion controlled and controlled. Energomash specialists proposed kerosene as fuel, and gaseous oxygen as an oxidizer. The combustion of such fuel in a detonation engine is supersonic, we are talking not about Mach 5, but about Mach 8.
They also work in this area abroad. Leading American aircraft manufacturers are proposing two engine designs for hypersonic aircraft: an SR-72 from Lockheed Martin and an unnamed Boeing. The SR-72 project has already reached the flight tests of the prototype. Boeing is only working on the general appearance of the future aircraft.
To combat high temperature loads, heat-resistant materials will be used, which are used in the construction of intercontinental ballistic missiles and Space Shuttle spaceships. Lockheed Martin is collaborating with other organizations to study hypersonic ramjets and combined turbojet and ramjet engines.
A promising American hypersonic aircraft will be able to reach speeds of about Mach 6 (about 6400 km / h) and climb to an altitude of 24-25 km. Such flight characteristics are expected to make it invulnerable to modern air defense systems. Of course, even at such a high speed in flight, the car will be detected, but the enemy will not have time to use anti-aircraft weapons. Lockheed Martin representatives say that the promising SR-72 can be both a reconnaissance aircraft and a platform for strike weapons.
Meanwhile, the test launch of the Russian winged Zircon in April last year showed that the speed of sound was eight times exceeded - up to 9800 km / h. Experts say: this is not the limit, the rocket can reach a speed of M = 10. The missile strikes any target within a radius of 500 km, it is maneuverable, much faster than any modern American anti-missile, and for its launch universal vertical launch systems are used - the same as for the Caliber.
Zircon may be ready for installation on ships this year. It will replace the heavy anti-ship missile P-700 Granit.
The United States intends to counter the Russian Zircon with a "low-yield" version of the Trident warhead by developing a new sea-launched cruise missile for it. The power of the future warhead is supposed to be 1 or 2 kt (currently the Trident warheads have a yield of 100 to 450 kt). The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a charge of 15 kt.
For skeptics who do not believe in achieving hypersonic speeds, scientists remind: the first space speed when placing an object into a near-earth orbit is 7, 8 km / s. It is 27 times the speed of sound near the earth. They didn’t believe that either.
