The U.S Air Force is could develop a nuclear-armed hypersonic boost-glide vehicle with a range
equivalent to a traditional intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM.
This system may potentially go on top of the future Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent or
GBSD ICBMs, which aims to replace America’s existing and aging nuclear-tipped LGM-30G
Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.
Till now it was perceived that hypersonic weapons programs being persuaded by different
branches of U.S. military are all conventionally-armed.
Air Force Lieutenant General Richard Clark, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence
and Nuclear Integration, said in response to a specific question about a potential nuclear-armed
hypersonic payload during a virtual event hosted by the Air Force Association's Mitchell
Institute on Aug. 19, 2020, "GBSD does have an open architecture.
It gives us an ability to incorporate emerging technologies we need to counter whatever threats
we face in the future.
So as we bring the system [GBSD] online, we will ensure that we have the ability to roll
different technologies in and incorporate that into GBSD."
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how the U.S plans counter Russian & Chinese air
defenses with a hypersonic glide vehicle nuclear-tipped missile?
Let’s get into the details.
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An object is said to be hypersonic once they exceed speeds of Mach 5 that is 5 times the
speed of sound.
This is about 1,715 meters per second or 3,836mph or 6,174 km/h.
There are currently 3 methods being applied to make hypersonic weapons.
The first is using a Scramjet engine.
The scramjet is an innovation on the Ramjet.
Ramjet engine can power flight to supersonic speeds but scramjet can enable the missiles
to reach hypersonic speeds.
The scramjet engine can power a hypersonic cruise missile.
The second is through the use of ALBM or Air-Launched Ballistic missile.
As the name suggests, this kind of missile is ballistic in nature but is launched from
air, unlike traditional ballistic missiles which are launched from land or sea-based
platforms.
The third is using HGV or Hypersonic Glide Vehicle.
In this method, the system is launched to extremely high altitudes using Ballistic Missile
or an aircraft where it skips across the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
The vehicle then separates from the carrier and glides back to the earth towards its intended
target attaining hypersonic speed.
This approach could be used in Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent ICBM where traditional
warheads will be replaced by HGV.
Countries like Russia, China has been developing sophisticated layered air defense.
These systems may be difficult for traditional aircraft & missiles to penetrate.
Traditional ballistic missiles like LGM-30 Minuteman III also reach hypersonic speed
of more than Mach 20 when it descends down on the target but it follows a predictable
predefined parabolic path which could lead to possible interception by modern anti-ballistic
missile defense systems.
Cruise missiles can maneuver when flying towards a target but have way less speed.
This makes them vulnerable to interception.
They also have a limited range, making them unsuitable for use in a strategic role.
Because of the latest air defenses, MAD equilibrium could be compromised.
Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD is a doctrine of military strategy and national security
policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would
cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.
Because of this, no country risks the use of nuclear options on another one which can
retaliate with nukes.
Hypersonic weapons are seen as a way to circumvent air defense and maintain MAD equilibrium.
Their extreme speed and ability to fly in unpredictable paths give them a high probability
of penetrating the air defenses.
They will be very hard to track, let alone intercept.
This makes them apt for neutralizing well-defended strategic military assets from long ranges
as well as act as nuclear deterrence.
Russia has claimed it has operationally deployed hypersonic boost-glide vehicle named Avangard.
In 2018, during the 'state of the nation' address, President Putin had unveiled several
new weapons and one of them was Avangard.
At that time Mr. Putin had described it by saying “It heads to target like a meteorite,
like a fireball”
Avangard's last test was on 26 Dec.
For the test, Avangard was deployed onboard a UR-100UTTKh ICBM.
It was launched from the Dombarovsky missile base in the Ural Mountains and hit a target
at the Kura Missile Test Range.
Yury Borisov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, stated a day later on a Russian TV
channel that the missile flew at 27 times the speed of sound that is Mach 27.
As per reports, Avangard is designed using advanced composite materials so that it can
withstand and operate in temperatures up to 2000 degrees Celsius which is attained when
an object flies through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
The weapon can carry a nuclear warhead of up to 2 megatons.
To give viewers a perspective, here is a comparison.
The Trinity Test in New Mexico in July 1945, which ushered in the nuclear age, had a yield
of 20 kilotons.
Hiroshima’s “Little Boy" bomb had a yield of 13-18 kilotons, whereas Nagasaki's "Fat
Man" bomb had a yield of 20– 22-kilotons of TNT.
The Russian defense ministry said that it had demonstrated the Avangard to a team of
US inspectors as part of transparency measures under the New Start nuclear arms treaty between
the two countries.
China is thought to be pursuing hypersonic weapons as well.
It had shown off mockups of its road-mobile DF-17 as part of the October 2019 celebrations
commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Though current U.S doctrine aims to keep hypersonic weapons for conventional strikes only, a path
has been kept open for changes.
Kingston Reif, the Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy at the Arms Control
Association, a non-partisan organization that works to promote "public understanding of
and support for effective arms control policies," pointed out on Twitter that President Donald
Trump's Administrations' 2018 Nuclear Posture Review included passages that could indicate
an interest in nuclear-armed hypersonic developments.
That policy document stated, "DoD will explore prioritization of existing
research and development funding for advanced nuclear delivery system technology and prototyping
capabilities,”
"This will support the U.S. development of hedging options and focus, as necessary, on
the rapid development of nuclear delivery systems, alternative basing modes, and capabilities
for defeating advanced air and missile defenses."
Current air defense could be overwhelmed with traditional nuclear-tipped missiles.
But things could change as more and more improvement is made.
Russia is working on the S 500 air defense system that could be very good at intercepting
traditional ballistic missiles.
It also has made progress on PRS-1M.
The PRS-1M is a new hypersonic interceptor developed by Russia as part of the A-135 missile
defense system.
It will act as a replacement for the 53T6 endo-atmospheric interceptor.
The 53T6 was a short-range interceptor designed to intercept Intermediated Range Ballistic
missile whereas PRS-1M is designed to neutralize even Intercontinental Ballistic missiles.
It is clear that going forward, these air defense systems may force the development
of HGV nuclear-tipped missiles and it wise for the U.S to slowly pave its way in this direction.