As far as “hypersonic missiles” - they really mean low altitude hypersonic cruise missiles, which would definitely be a huge threat to our carrier groups as they’re currently used. Like said, I’d put my $$$ on Russia/India having the first operational ones with the Brahmos II. They’ve(Russia) had ramjet powered supersonic cruise missiles operational since early 80’s. A scramjet powered one would change the game and make all our above surface vessels/ships highly vulnerable.
From the photos of the Chinese/NK “hypersonic missiles”, they appear rocket powered. A scramjet missile will have a very distinct kind of wide thin wedge shape.
We’ve had the ability to make hypersonic rocket powered cruise missiles for decades and decades:
en.wikipedia.org
That ^^ was fckn 1959! Apply todays tech to that and we could have a rocket powered ~Mach 8-10 sea skimmer within a month.
We’ve also had since the early 2000’s(longgg before China/Russia were building such)working scramjet powered experimental aircraft(potential/probable future missiles…and now possibly even very close to having the genuine article ie a finished missile).
en.wikipedia.org
For whatever reason, we’ve focused our efforts much more elsewhere..? But if we put the necessary resources toward it(assuming we ain’t, and that we actually ain’t secretly doing just that - we could’ve likely had a hypersonic scramjet powered sea/land skimmer already fully operational).
Again, the scramjet engine is the game changer here… providing much longer range with a smaller missile and consequently lower radar cross section.
The other cool thing when talking hypersonic missiles.. you don’t necessarily even need explosives on board - the kinetic energy alone provided by such immense velocities is tremendous…along with the penetration ability. They will be devastating weapons when they come on the scene, and no current tech with the ability to intercept them aside from possibly trying to jam their targeting system and cause a miss of the intended target. Provided you even detect them in time to begin such countermeasures, which will be a helluva feat in itself.
www.foxnews.com
