What are hypersonic missiles that Russia is using in Ukraine and why are they hard to intercept?
India Today
Hypersonic missiles have emerged as the next potent weapons that have the ability to evade radars as countries rush to develop a system to penetrate these high-speed missiles.
With the advent of technology and enhancement of weapon development, countries have moved from nuclear warheads to a new form of missiles — hypersonic. These missiles have emerged as a potent weapon to conduct targeted hits against adversaries, and Russia is doing just that in Ukraine as it claims to have fired two such missiles.
Russia and China have emerged as major players when it comes to hypersonic missiles, as the US catches up and India moves ahead slowly to sharpen the technology. The Russian military says it already deployed hypersonic missiles, claiming on both Saturday and Sunday to have deployed them against targets in Ukraine, marking the weapon’s first use in combat.
The US Pentagon has not yet confirmed the claims as experts rush to understand the impact of these projectiles.
Hypersonic weapons are defined as anything traveling beyond Mach 5, or five times faster than the speed of sound. That’s about 6,100 kilometers per hour. Intercontinental ballistic missiles far exceed that threshold but travel in a predictable path, making it possible to intercept them.
Russia says it has ballistic missiles that can deploy hypersonic glide vehicles as well as a hypersonic cruise missile.
The first use comes months after the Russian Navy successfully test-fired a prospective hypersonic missile in November. Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile, hitting a practice target 400 kilometers away. The launch was the latest in a series of tests of Zircon as President Vladimir Putin said it would be capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of 1,000 kilometres.
Zircon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates, and submarines. It is one of several hypersonic missiles under development in Russia.
