Shipping :
See: SR-72, § Mayhem Transport consumes energy for three purposes: overcoming gravity, overcoming air/water friction, and achieving terminal velocity. Hypersonics addresses all three. Proponents claim that the net energy costs of hypersonic transport can be lower than those of conventional transport while slashing journey times.
Hermeus demonstrated transition from
turbojet operation to
ramjet operation on 17 November 2022, without using a rocket or scramjet.
Weapons (denoted in red), has a distinctive signature which is being tracked by one of the layers of the
National Defense Space Architecture (
§ NDSA) beginning in 2021. Tranche 0 is to begin deployment in 2022. {{ulist Two main types of hypersonic weapons are
hypersonic cruise missiles and
hypersonic glide vehicles. Scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles are limited to below ; while hypersonic glide vehicles can travel higher. Hypersonic vehicles travel much slower than
ballistic (i.e. sub-orbital or fractional orbital) missiles, because they travel in the atmosphere, while ballistic missiles travel in the vacuum above the atmosphere. However, they can use the atmosphere to manoeuvre, enabling large-angle deviations from a ballistic trajectory.
National efforts Russia and China lead in hypersonic weapon development, trailed by the United States and other countries.
China China's XingKong-2 (星空二号,
Starry-sky-2)
waverider first flew on 3 August 2018. In August 2021 China launched a boost-glide vehicle to low-earth orbit, circling Earth before maneuvering toward its target location, missing by two dozen miles. However China claimed that the vehicle was a spacecraft, and not a missile. On July 2021 China tested a spaceplane. An orbital trajectory would take 90 minutes for a spaceplane to circle Earth (which would defeat the mission of a weapon in hypersonic flight).
The Pentagon reported in October 2021 that two such hypersonic launches had occurred; one did not demonstrate the accuracy needed for a precision weapon; In 2022, China unveiled two more hypersonic models. An AI simulation reported that a Mach 11 aircraft can outrun a Mach 1.3 fighter attempting to engage it, while firing its missile at the "pursuing" fighter. This strategy entails a fire control system to accomplish an over-the-shoulder missile launch, which did not exist as of 2023. In February 2023, the
DF-27 covered in 12 minutes, according to
leaked secret documents. The capability directly threatens Guam, and US Navy aircraft carriers.
Russia In 2016, Russia is believed to have conducted two successful tests of
Avangard, a hypersonic glide vehicle. The third known test, in 2017, failed. In 2018, an Avangard was launched at the
Dombarovskiy missile base, reaching its target at the
Kura shooting range, a distance of . Avangard used composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to , which it experienced at hypervelocity Russia considered its initial
carbon fiber solution to be unreliable, were mounted on
SS-19 ICBMs. On 27 December 2019 one was fielded to the Yasnensky Missile Division, a unit in the
Orenburg Oblast. In 2021 Russia launched a
3M22 Zircon antiship missile (standoff strike weapon) over the
White Sea, as part of a series of tests. In February 2022, a coordinated series of missile exercises, some hypersonic, were launched on 18 February 2022 in an apparent display of
power projection. The launch platforms ranged from submarines in the
Barents Sea, as well as from ships on the
Black Sea south of Russia. The exercise included a
RS-24 Yars ICBM, which was launched from the
Plesetsk Cosmodrome in
Northern Russia and reached its destination on the
Kamchatka Peninsula in
Eastern Russia. Ukraine estimated a
3M22 Zircon was used against it, but it apparently did not exceed Mach 3 and was shot down 7 February 2024 in Kyiv.
United States The US launched a joint program across the entire
Department of Defense to advance its hypersonic missile development around 2018. Russian and Chinese tests prompted US responses. By 2018, the
AGM-183 and
Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon At least one vendor was developing ceramics to handle the temperatures of hypersonic systems. Over a dozen US hypersonic projects were active as of 2018. The bulk of the hypersonics work remains at the Joint level. The Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) CFT supports
Space and Missile Defense Command's pursuit of hypersonics. The Army and Navy's Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) successfully tested a prototype in March 2020. • In 2021 a wind tunnel for testing hypersonic vehicles was completed in Texas. The Army's Land-based Hypersonic Missile was intended to have a range of . By adding rocket propulsion to a shell or glide body, the joint effort shaved five years off the likely fielding time. Hypersonics countermeasures require sensor data fusion: both radar and infrared sensor tracking data are required to capture the signature of a hypersonic vehicle in the atmosphere. Privately developed hypersonic systems were under development. Critics offered opinions. DoD tested a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) in 2020. The Air Force dropped out of the tri-service hypersonic project in 2020. Air Force chief scientist, Dr.
Greg Zacharias stated that the US anticipated having hypersonic weapons by the 2020s, hypersonic drones by the 2030s, and recoverable hypersonic drone aircraft by the 2040s. DoD development focused on air-breathing
boost-glide hypersonics systems. Countering hypersonic weapons during their cruise phase requires longer-range radar, as well as space-based sensors, and systems for tracking and fire control. On 21 October 2021, the Pentagon stated that a test of a hypersonic glide body failed because its booster failed. The test occurred at
Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska, on Kodiak island. Three
rocketsondes at
Wallops Island completed successful tests earlier that week. On 28 June 2024, DoD announced a successful end-to-end test of the US Army's LRHW all-up round (AUR) and the US Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike. The missile was launched from the
Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii. In September 2021, and in March 2022,
Raytheon/
Northrop Grumman, In March 2024,
Stratolaunch Roc launched TA-1, a vehicle that approached Mach 5 at in a powered flight, a risk-reduction exercise for TA-2. In a similar development, Castelion launched its low-cost hypersonic platform in the
Mojave desert in March 2024. In 2021, DoD was codifying flight test guidelines, knowledge gained from Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), and other hypersonics programs, for some
70 hypersonics R&D programs. In 2021–2023,
Heidi Shyu, the
Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering pursued a program of annual rapid joint experiments, including hypersonics capabilities, to bring down the cost of development. Hypersonic test beds were targeting test frequency of one per week.
Iran In 2022, Iran was believed to have constructed a hypersonic missile.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Air Force of the
Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, announced the construction of their first hypersonic missile. with a speed above Mach 13.
Other programs France,
Australia,
Germany, and
North Korea, have hypersonic weapon projects/research programs. Companies were expected to contribute to the development of these missiles, named SCIFIRE in 2022. ==Defenses==