wow!
4600 mph and heavy enough to sink a ship, too?
amazing!
They are magical and beyond the US’s abilities to defend.
Knirps for moisture.
Big, Big problem if they have a working version. This one in the picture is almost a 100% copy of one I was associated with. It is a U.S. company. The engine is the challenge. The Russians have been very interested in hypersonics for 20+ years. A working version virtually makes capital ships obsolete. For a properly designed version, there is only one method to stop it. For the Russian version I saw, there are two methods, but the additional one would be a challenge to deploy properly. Bottom line: I don’t think they have a working version yet. I have not seen any incremental successes for the engine they have.
By the way: the 3M22 Zircon pictured in the comments is the U.S. version. Just look at the patches on the engine.
I suspect that we are way ahead of the Russians on this subject.
Just wait until muzzies take over one of our European allies that has nuclear weapons. It’s only a matter of time.
Once the launch foilies fall alway, time to deploy countermeasures against the zircon encrusted tweezers.
We have airborne lasers..
Disturbing. Mach 7 is almost 1.5 miles per second. Hopefully Airborne Early Warning aircraft would detect these. Otherwise, air defense ships would detect them 25 to 30 miles out. Thats 11 to 15 seconds to detect and destroy them.
http://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/focus-analysis/naval-technology/3810-analysis-3k22-and-3m22-zircon-the-next-generation-hypersonic-missile-of-the-russian-navy.html
I remember reading that Khrushchev told Kennedy that they were churning out hydrogen tipped ICBM’s like sausages. They didn’t have one operational per a satellite photo.
It would hardly need a warhead at those speeds. Simply put a tungsten nose-cone on it. The kinetic energy alone would do the job.
Not sure about the aerodynamics at low altitudes. I would think anything flying at high-Mach would be coming in from high-altitude.
The U.K. will be right on it as soon as they address their muzlim issue. Right away, no worries...and there are a lot of real men left there to help out.
There is a line in a James Bond movie where the villains says something like “ 007 what you doing here? I don’t care about your pathetic little island.” I don’t the Russians are focusing on the royal Navy.
It may be proposed, may be in development, but I would lay odds against operational capability.
Cool missile!
4600 mph is about the velocity of a Rail Gun.