The Pentagon had promised that the U.S will test a hypersonic weapon this year and it
has kept it.
The flight test of a hypersonic missile has been carried out, launching it from the Pacific
Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, on March 19 at 10:30 p.m. local time.
The test was deemed a success.
According to a statement issued March 20 by the Department of Defense, the Common-Hypersonic
Glide Body, or C-HGB, launched and flew at hypersonic speed to “a designated impact
point,” The test was a joint effort between the U.S
Navy and U.S Army.
Mike White, the assistant director of the hypersonic program said, “The glide body
tested today is now ready for transition to Army and Navy weapon system development efforts,”
This is one of the most important developments of recent times when it comes to augmenting
the offensive capability of the U.S military.
In this video Defense Updates reports on the U.S testing of Common-Hypersonic Glide Body
hypersonic weapon.
Let’s get into the details.
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An object is said to be hypersonic once they exceed speeds of Mach 5 or 5 times the speed
of sound.
This is about 1,715 meters per second or 3,836mph or 6,174 kmh.
The reason to develop & deploy hypersonic weapons is these weapons would be almost invulnerable
to current defensive systems that are designed to handle subsonic and supersonic weapons.
The immense speed of hypersonic weapons makes the current air defense system useless.
There is another aspect, the speed will provide the hypersonic weapons with huge 'Kinetic
Energy' since it is proportional to the square of 'Velocity'.
This basically means a missile having a speed of Mach 5 will have 25 times the Kinetic Energy
of a missile which has a speed of Mach 1.
The Kinetic Energy will alone be enough to decimate most targets without being dependent
on the explosive power of the warhead.
It is to be noted that America’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has stated
that the U.S currently lacks the defenses required to protect against the latest crop
of hypersonic weapons being developed by China and Russia.
The report states, “China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic
weapons because their speed, altitude, and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense
systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities.
There are no existing countermeasures.”
Viewers can go through the report from the link given in the ‘Description’ section
below.
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.
C-HGB will use this approach.
The U.S Department of Defense has been developing the C-HGB so that it will serve as the base
of its offensive hypersonic missile.
Each service of the U.S Military will use the C-HGB as the base while developing individual
weapon systems such as launchers capable of firing the weapons from land or sea.
The C-HGB will have the warhead, guidance system as well as thermal protection shield.
Viewers may note that Hypersonic weapons development is one of the U.S DoD’s highest development
priorities, and it is trying to field a hypersonic weapon in the early to mid-2020s.
Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, the Navy’s director of Strategic Systems Programs whose team is
leading the design of the C-HGB stated, “This test builds on the success we had
with Flight Experiment 1 in October 2017, in which our C-HGB achieved sustained hypersonic
glide at our target distances”
He added, “In this test we put additional stresses
on the system and it was able to handle them all, due to the phenomenal expertise of our
top notch team of individuals from across government, industry and academia.
Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding
a hypersonic strike capability.”
The joint effort will see U.S Navy lead the C-HGB’s design and development and the U.S
Army lead its production & deployment.
It is important to note that hypersonic weapons development and production is an effort that
will have to be started almost from scratch since there is currently no industrial base
to produce required components.
The released statement also noted that the MDA or Missile Defense Agency monitored the
test and gathered tracking data.
It is noted that MDA is has taken up the development and design of an interceptor that knock out
hypersonic weapons of rivals.
One such effort is the Regional Glide Phase Weapon System (RGPWS) which is a concept for
an interceptor against a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV).
To know more that please check the video on the above card.
After decades of development, hypersonic weapons are coming to the forefront.
Russia in late 2019 claimed that it deployed its first nuclear-capable hypersonic boost
glide vehicle (HGV) named Avangard.
It is a surface-to-surface hypersonic weapon, that has possibly made Russia the first country
to field an operational hypersonic weapon.
President Vladimir Putin stated that it puts his country in a class of its own.
He described the Avangard, which can fly at 27 times the speed of sound, as a technological
breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite.
Mr. Putin has said that Russia’s new generation of nuclear weapons can hit almost any point
in the world and evade a US-built missile shield.
Russia has also stated that it has deployed hypersonic Air-Launched Ballistic missile
named Kinzhal meaning 'Dagger' It reportedly has a range of approximately
1,250 miles or 2000 km and a top speed of more than 10 times the speed of sound i.e.
Mach 10.
It is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
China is also investing significantly in hypersonic weapons development though its effort is not
as mature as the Russian.
China 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.
U.S military has been criticized for failing behind Russia & china when it comes to Hypersonic
weapons.
It is now getting its act together and is accelerating the efforts.
The 3 services of the U.S military are targeting a very aggressive timeline.
The U.S Army wants a mobile land-based capability fielded around 2023, the U.S Navy wants its
ship-launched capability fielded in 2023 followed by a submarine-launched missile in 2024, and
the U.S Air Force is looking to field its air-launched version in 2022.
It remains to be seen how things pan out in
the coming days.