Hypersonic weapon

"Hypersonic missile" redirects here. For other uses, see Hypersonic Missiles (disambiguation).

Hypersonic missile
Comparison of Ballistic Missile and Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (C-HGB) Flight Trajectories for the LRHW Program
An Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) carried by a B-52 bomber
Hypersonic missile
Scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile

A hypersonic weapon is a weapon capable of travelling at hypersonic speed, defined as between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound or about 1 to 5 miles per second (1.6 to 8.0 km/s).[1]

Below such speeds, weapons would be characterized as subsonic or supersonic, while above such speeds, the molecules of the atmosphere disassociate into a plasma which makes control and communication difficult.

There are multiple types of hypersonic weapon:

  1. Hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV): missile warheads which maneuver and glide through the atmosphere at high speeds after an initial ballistic launch phase[2][1]
  2. Hypersonic cruise missile: cruise missiles which use air-breathing engines such as scramjets to reach high speeds[2][1]
  3. Hypersonic aircraft using air-breathing engines such as scramjets to reach high speeds[1]
  4. Guns which fire cannon-launched guided projectiles. These may be developments of traditional artillery or novel technologies such as railguns.[1]

Other types of weapons, such as traditional ballistic missiles, may achieve hypersonic speeds but are not typically classified as hypersonic weapons due to lacking the use of aerodynamic lift to allow their reentry vehicles to maneuver under guided flight within the atmosphere.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference AC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Stone, Richard (8 January 2020). "'National pride is at stake.' Russia, China, United States race to build hypersonic weapons". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aba7957.
  3. ^ "Fact Sheet: Hypersonic Weapons". Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation. 15 November 2023.
  4. ^ Montgomery, Alexander. "Ukraine and the Kinzhal: Don't believe the hypersonic hype". Brookings Institution. The term "hypersonic" is now typically used just to refer to two types of weapons that are being developed through contemporary defense programs: hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) and hypersonic cruise missiles (HCMs).