The hypersonic missiles supply the greatest jump in that type of weapons since more than 40 years ago the cruise missiles appeared (which fly spotted with geographic accidents) and maneuverable reentry vehicles, or MARV, for its acronym In English (which allow nuclear or conventional heads to change their heading when haggling in the atmosphere following their goals). Both types of devices – the cruise missiles and the Marv – are much more difficult to detect and intercept. And hypersonic missiles take those characteristics to a new level that makes them, today, invulnerable. That, of course, if the missiles work. Because, according to Financial Times, the Chinese missile errmed the target for 38 kilometers. For something to be “hypersonic” has to go to, at least, five times the speed of sound, which implies about 100 kilometers per minute. There are two types of missiles of this type: Bolistics, such as China, and cruise, such as Russia rehearsed in the Arctic in July.
This second type is actually a cruise missile much faster than the current ones. The cruise missiles do not exceed the speed of sound, that is, about 1,200 kilometers per hour. That means that, yes they are detected, can be knocked down even with past machine guns (and quite luck). But the Tsirkon cruise missile released by Russia at the Barents Sea reached, according to Moscow, seven times the speed of sound, that is, more than 8,000 kilometers per hour. That means that it took him just two and a half minutes to reach his target, located 350 kilometers away, a distance similar to the one between Madrid and Oviedo in a straight line, when to a Tomahawk-a US conventional cruise missile- would have taken him almost half an hour. The missile released by China, however, is a different creature. It is a normal ballistic missile – in this case, a long Macha 2C, according to Financial Times – with a head of reentry in the atmosphere that, when addressing its target, makes it more than 6,000 kilometers per hour. As if that were not enough, the Chinese missile seems to have been orbiting around the earth. This is a direct threat to the United States, as it means that that country could be attacked from the southern hemisphere. All US defense systems point to the north, to the Arctic, given that this is the route from which the Soviet missiles, in the past, and Russians and Chinese, at present.
Hypersonic ballistic missiles reach a height much lower than that of conventional missiles, since they are limited to being in the highest layers of the atmosphere, without going out to the outer space.
To that is added that his entry head changes speed, course and altitude.
The combination of both factors makes them very difficult to detect and impossible to intercept.
Thus, the anti-missile system developed by the United States in Alaska and California to protect themselves from North Korean attacks would be virtually unusable.
In fact, successful a conventional ballistic missile is very difficult.
The US has made 20 trials with those missiles.
Of these, 11 were a success and 9 or failure.
The United States has been testing with hypersonic missiles for years, but it has not yet developed technology enough to deploy these weapons. Russia claims to have initiated the location of this type of weapons for several years. China’s case is more difficult to evaluate, since Beijing is expanding their missile forces, but denies that they include hypersonic weapons. In any case, Washington believes that both Moscow and Beijing have hypersonic missiles, although they are very worried about China because that country has infinitely superior economic resources to those of Russia. The US will not have weapons of this type operative until within several years. North Korea says having launched a missile of these characteristics, in India is also investigating this direction, as part of its rivalry with China. In any case, given the secrecy of the countries, added to the tendency to propaganda of governments, it will be very difficult to know the state of development of this technology.
