Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Hypersonic weapons are coming—whether we’re ready or not

Recommendable! Definitely concerning! There is also a paper by the same author available, which I did not read.

"Hypersonic systems include anything that travels faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. We may be on the cusp of seeing hypersonic weapons proliferate around the world, with Russia, China and the US all in the process of developing and testing them. By 2030 they are likely to be in the inventory of all of the major powers. And Australia might well join them - we have some world class researchers and have been active in joint programs with the US for over 20 years. The government has added hypersonic weapons to its defence acquisition plan. ...
Russian and Chinese systems are being developed with a nuclear or conventional warhead capability. ..."

"... Re-entering the earth’s atmosphere at speeds in excess of Mach 20, ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] were essentially immune to any sort of defensive action, leading to the Cold War standoff of mutually assured destruction. Even today, defence against anything other than a small number of unsophisticated ICBMs remains highly problematic. And the emerging generation of hypersonic weapons is likely to render defensive efforts even less effective. ...
By travelling at a lower altitude than the lofted trajectories of ICBMs, they provide reduced warning times to ground-based radar. And, because they can manoeuvre—in contrast to the predictable trajectories of ICBMs—they can approach the intended target from almost any direction. ...
ecause high speed precludes high manoeuvrability, such weapons won’t be suitable against fast-moving targets but could be very effective against fixed targets or slow-moving targets such as ships. ...
Australia is investing many billions of dollars in advanced sensors and combat systems to defend its surface vessels against subsonic and supersonic weapons. ...
In between strategic and tactical systems, intermediate range (500- to 5,000-kilometre) hypersonic weapons raise some serious arms control and stability issues. Intermediate range ballistic weapons were banned by treaty towards the end of the Cold War because the reduced warning times increased the risk of uncontrolled escalation. ..."

Hypersonic weapons are coming—whether we’re ready or not | The Strategist

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