Understanding hypersonic weapons

What is the News?

The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that it had used a hypersonic missile for the first time in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. 

What are Hypersonic weapons?

Hypersonic missiles are manoeuvrable weapons that fly at least at the speed of Mach 5 i.e. five times the speed of sound.

Note: The speed of sound is Mach 1 and speeds above Mach 1 are supersonic and speeds above Mach 5 are hypersonic. 

How are Hypersonic weapons different from Ballistic Missiles?

Ballistic Missiles travel much faster. But they follow a fixed trajectory and travel outside the atmosphere to re-enter only near impact. 

Hypersonic weapons travel within the atmosphere and can manoeuvre midway. They can travel at high speeds, thus making their detection and interception extremely difficult. I.e., Radar and air defences cannot detect them till they are very close and have only a little time to react.

What are the types of Hypersonic weapons?

There are two types of hypersonic weapons systems. 1) Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV): These are launched from a rocket before gliding to the intended target, 2) Hypersonic Cruise Missiles: These are powered by air-breathing high-speed engines or ‘scramjets’ after acquiring their target.

Which countries possess Hypersonic weapons?

Russia has announced its hypersonic missile ‘Kinzhal’ or Dagger in 2018 and has now used it for the first time in battle conditions in Ukraine. China is also said to have tested a Hypersonic weapon in 2021.

The US has also tested hypersonic weapons for decades. However, U.S. hypersonic development programmes are lagging behind China and Russia because most U.S. hypersonic weapons are not being designed for use with a nuclear warhead.

Apart from these countries, a number of other countries including Australia, India, France, Germany, and Japan — are also developing hypersonic weapons technology. 

About the Indian hypersonic missile programme

India operates approximately 12 hypersonic wind tunnels and is capable of testing speeds of up to Mach 13.

India is also developing an indigenous, dual-capable hypersonic cruise missile as part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle(HSTDV) programme and successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet in 2019 and 2020.

A hypersonic version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, joint development of India and Russia, is also under development.

Source: The post is based on an article “Understanding hypersonic weapons” published in The Hindu on 23rd March 2022