Russian hypersonic glide vehicle is operational... supposedly

[Winston]

Russian hypersonic glide vehicle is operational
27 Dec 2019

https://apnews.com/597e7f2b20b21af959e4c6983b255c37

MOSCOW (AP) — A new intercontinental weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound became operational Friday, Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin, bolstering the country’s nuclear strike capability.

Putin has described the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite. The new Russian weapon and a similar system being developed by China have troubled the United States, which has pondered defense strategies.

The Avangard is launched atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, but unlike a regular missile warhead that follows a predictable path after separation it can make sharp maneuvers in the atmosphere en route to target, making it much harder to intercept.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered combat duty.

The military said the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound. It carries a nuclear weapon of up to 2 megatons.

 

[DAllen]

Mach 27?

 

[rharshberger]

Cold War v2.0, bring it on!

 

[Reinhard]

Mach 27?

The speed of sound decreases with falling temperatures. Depending on altitude, Mach 27 is well below orbital speeds, quite within reach of the ICBMs used to launch this type of glide vehicle.

Reinhard

 

[Andrew_ASC]

The thing about these hypersonic glider dart warheads... They can alter trajectory rapidly non orbital mechanics. That makes them harder to intercept with conventional anti ballistic missile tech.

DARPA has similar program. Unknown phase on it.

 

[jderimig]

The thing about these hypersonic glider dart warheads... They can alter trajectory rapidly non orbital mechanics. That makes them harder to intercept with conventional anti ballistic missile tech.

DARPA has similar program. Unknown phase on it.

You get them on the way up... I don't anything is reliable on re-entry intercept, regardless of what the government says..

 

[BBowmaster]

Exciting stuff. I hope we don’t see it used in war of course, but Mach 15+ travel will be awesome. Similar to the “semi-ballistic” liners from Heinlein’s Friday novel. New York to Moscow in 15 minutes.

 

[Andrew_ASC]

Militaries have goals of lofting nukes anywhere in the globe in one hour. The hard to intercept even with hypersonic ABM existing tech was a big plus for them. And a horrifying bleak reality.

Would be lovely if they could use X51 hypersonic engine for say Super fast freaking Concorde 2.0... I have doubts lol.
More or less USA/Russia/China have been in hypersonic tech Cold War race for awhile. China kinda creeps me out. They don’t flash new tech development as much as Russia does nowadays. They have that we build it first we shut up and not tell you Soviet era mentality.

And you can’t always catch a icbm in launch phase. You’d have to have a ABM launcher with everything ready to go in flight parameter envelope for intercept. There is always risk intercept will fail. Some ICBM have decoy Ecm/IR jamming tech. Possible a patrolling fighter jet or air laser could catch it if in right area but doubtful.

If they cram these systems into freaking submarines that’ll be like 200x more horrific because good luck finding a motionless darked our passive submarine easily lol. At least they can watch silos or ground truck easier.