The new hypersonic missile variants concern the USA and NATO.

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

https://designandinnovationtales.blogspot.com/

About the mysterious X-37B

(Picture I)

About the mysterious X-37B

The X-37B is the miniature space shuttle, which can be used as the many types of missions. It can take small satellites to the orbiter, but it can also repair them. That automatized shuttle can spend even years in space, and that thing would give a change to speculations, that this system would someday to use for bringing small asteroids on Earth for a closer look. And of course, X-37B can operate as the base for small size-human shaped robots, what can operate on the orbital trajectory.

Actually, those robots might not look like human except, they have hands, which can use similar tools with humans. The shape of those orbital operating robots might be like flashlight what has hands. And those robots can remotely be operated from Earth. The role of X-37B might be the refueling the power systems of those robots, which are remote-controlled by using data gloves and virtual reality masks. 

But X-37B is the modular system, and it can allow giving the USAF the FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombing System) capacity. And the thing is that the nuclear bomb can simply load in the cargo bay of the X-37B, and then this shuttle would dive to the target. Or it can drop that bomb to the target. The shuttle structure allows returning the nuclear bomb to the Earth when the operation is over. And the X-37B can be used also as the HCM (Hypersonic Cruise Missile). The missile would glide from the orbital to its target by using really high speed.

The miniature shuttles can be used as the FOBS weapons, which can return the nuclear warheads to the Earth.  X-37B can be equipped with DEW (Directed Energy Weapons) like laser and microwave systems. But it can also use kinetic energy rockets and missiles against ground targets. 

This kind of miniature shuttles can be used also as the satellite-killer. It can be equipped with similar ADS (Active Denial System)-system, what used in Afghanistan but some improved variants of this "non-lethal" microwave system might be planned to install in M-1 and Israeli Merkava tanks for protecting them against anti-tank missiles by using microwaves to explode the incoming warheads before they hit to the target. If this system is installed in the spacecraft, it can terminate the space systems, like reconnaissance, communication and navigation satellites.

In the more conventional version, the X-37B can take the rocket cassette, what is used in aircraft or helicopters to the manipulator. And then use those rockets against targets what might be on the space, but those rockets can be used as the kinetic energy ammunition, what can be used against ground targets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System

Picture I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37