Posted on 05/31/2017 7:26:01 AM PDT by C19fan
Russia has launched five successful flights of a hypersonic jet that is capable of destroying an aircraft carrier with a single impact, according to a new report. The Zircon cruise missile travels between 3,800mph and 4,600mph - five to six times the speed of sound - and puts Russia 'half a decade' ahead of the US', the report says. This makes it faster than any anti-missile system, including those that are expected to appear in the next two decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Yeah, gotta call BS on this one. The speed cited would cause the platform to disintegrate or melt. The shock wave would cause catastrophic damage.
It’s just a matter of math and putting enough garbage into the flight path to damage it enough that it stops.
When you figure that one design for an anti-ballistic missile weapon was basically a giant umbrella frame that was inert because the impact speed would be enough to destroy the warhead.. it makes the term “unstoppable” rather inaccurate.
And nuclear warheads are reentry vehicles that travel MUCH faster than this supposedly “unstoppable” missile.
I remember the hype for laser weapons at one time. Are they ever going to be of much usefulness?
Bingo! At that speed, any sort of shrapnel will impact it’s capability to hit the target.
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away they were all the rage.
I don’t think anything can fly mach 6 in the lower atmosphere without melting. There’s no material strong enough.
We’ll know when the Norks claim to have one...................
How controllable would it be flying at 4600 mph through dense atmosphere ? I am guessing it would have to fly a predetermined path with no room for error if it’s to hit a tiny speck (aircraft carrier) in the middle of a vast ocean. Now couple that with ‘Soviet technology’ and it’s more likely to end up straight in the drink.
Just knicking the surface would create a hot spot and lead to thermal damage.
Ablative materials will allow it to last long enough to reach its target. They poor conductors of heat, keeping the airframe cool, and the ablation process takes a majority of the aeroheating away from the vehicle.
Except the U.S. was already testing the X-51 A "Waverider" hypersonic cruise missile back in 2010. Who knows what they have now.
Near sea level, I wouldn’t think even ablative heat shields can protect something at mach 6. But I’m no expert on this.
Depends on the surface material. Ablative materials still work quite well even with irregularities.
*cough cough* Columbia reentry disaster *cough cough*
Ablatives don’t work if there is enough damage.
It really depends on the amount of time the vehicle is moving at Mach 6, and how much ablative material one is willing to put on the airframe.
Tiles are much more fragile than some of the ablative materials out there. But, yes, they are not impervious to damage, but more tolerant of it.
Honestly, don’t you think the missile makers have thought of these limitations?
Yeah, right. Lying news. When the SR-71 was recruited and used by the military, a mach 3.5 aircraft, publicly, it ended up being turned into a spy plane because it ran over it’s own bullets and missiles. It also had a fuel limitation that it had to be refueled to go anywhere just short of cruising altitude right after takeoff.
Which brings to mind, without fuel, what type of range could this thing have? Judging by the picture of it, the body would have been had to be totally fuel and unable to carry any real strong type of payload, if at all, anyway.
The US has already started developing an air craft, the SR-72 to replace the semi-retired SR-71 at Lockheed/McDonald Douglas.
But it also is a spy plane carrying cameras with the exception of being unmanned. They originally retired the SR-71 due to a lack of need with the use of satellites. So they already have operational orbiting cameras.
Mach 8.5 at Holloman Air Force Base in 2003.
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