Russia is taking new 3M22 Zircon missiles in service. Zircon is an air-breathing scramjet or ramjet propeller missile. The speed range of the missile is Mach 5 to Mach 9. And maybe the Mach 9 model uses scramjet. And Mach 5 model uses ramjet. Wikipedia says that the Zircon uses scramjet, so there may be two models of that missile other is reserved only for the Russian fleet. And another is the export model.
Russia has another hypersonic weapon already in service. That is an air-launched Kh-47M2 Kinzhal which uses a conventional rocket engine.
The speed of the Kinzhal missile is Mach 10 to Mach 12. But its flight range is more limited. The dropping aircraft is normally a TU-22B or MiG-31 that takes the missile near to its target. And then it can launch that missile.And the system uses regular rocket engines.
China has two long-range hypersonic missiles in service. DF-21D and DF-26B. Those weapons are meant to destroy the US fleet of aircraft carriers. DF-21D is an anti-ship ballistic missile. And the DF-26B is an anti-ship variant of the DF-26A missile.
DF-17 is a ballistic missile with a hypersonic glider. There is the possibility that the DF-17 glider is installed in the DF-21 and DF-26 missiles. There is also claiming that the Zircon is a copy of the DF-17 missile. But Russians say that Zircon uses scramjet engines and is more advanced than any of those weapons before.
So those Chinese missiles are ballistic missiles that can launch from far away in the drylands. Those weapons are more conventional IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles) with precision-guided warheads than some hypersonic cruise missiles.
There are visions that the scramjet-driven cruise missile can be shoot to ballistic trajectory by using conventional rockets. The rocket takes that cruise missile out of the atmosphere. And then the cruise missile falls back into the atmosphere. When the cruise missile's speed increases enough high. The scramjet engine can start.
The hypersonic cruise missile can fly at a very high speed at a high altitude. The operational altitude of the hypersonic scramjet-driven missile is higher than a regular cruise missile. But it is lower than ICBM missiles.
That makes defense against those hypersonic weapons difficult. The altitude where hypersonic missiles are flying is very high. That denies overheating of the body of the missile. The missile's speed must be high enough that the scramjet engine can get enough oxygen.
There are tested laser weapons against those hypersonic cruise systems. Hypersonic cruise missiles that use stealth technology are hard to detect. If the defender can calculate the trajectory of the incoming hypersonic cruise missile there is possible to aim counter-actions against those missiles. The hypersonic missile can have a microwave transmitter in its nose. That transmitter or microwave weapon gets its energy from a rapid air generator.
That system makes defense against hypersonic weapons more difficult. The microwaves are giving EMP impulses to the target. And those impulses can also destroy or damage the incoming surface-to-air missiles that shot against the track of the hypersonic missile.
The new 6th. generation jet fighters can also have the ability to shoot down hypersonic missiles. Those jet fighters might also have the ability to fly with hypersonic speed and shoot down hypersonic targets by using some traditional weapon or laser weapon. So the ultimate weapon will face the counter weapon. And then some new solution makes that counter weapon useless.
https://breakingdefense.com/2022/08/hypersonic-weapons-meet-speed-of-light-defenses/
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/08/df-26b-how-china-could-sink-a-navy-aircraft-carrier-for-2000-miles-away/
https://www.uawire.org/media-russian-hypersonic-missile-zircon-is-just-a-smaller-replica-of-chinese-dongfeng-17
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-17
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M22_Zircon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-47M2_Kinzhal
Image: https://www.uawire.org/media-russian-hypersonic-missile-zircon-is-just-a-smaller-replica-of-chinese-dongfeng-17
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