Russia and other developments in Hypersonic Research

Arrow wrote:


Or Zirconia ? U.S. hypersonic missile program is more advanced than the Russian?

Arrow wrote:When Zircona will be start testing ?

GarryB wrote:

Arrow wrote:When Zircona will be start testing ?

I would suspect they will have tested a few components already and also had some combined tests too... in the early 1990s they tested scramjet engines on the nose of SA-5 Gammon missiles where the small scramjet engines were fitted to the nose of the missiles that were fired conventionally up to high altitude and high speed and then the scramjet is started.

The test I read about had the scramjet operating for just over one minute with the test missile accelerating from mach 5 to mach 7 and travelling 180km.

the photos of the launch vehicle are amusing as the tiny scramjet on the nose really looks too small to drag that huge missile from Mach 5 to Mach 7.

Here is a photo:

sepheronx wrote:So do you guys think that once US places bases in Ukraine, that Russia will restart Kh-90 Program?

magnumcromagnon wrote:

sepheronx wrote:So do you guys think that once US places bases in Ukraine, that Russia will restart Kh-90 Program?

The program stopped because of the INF treaty, yet another reason to leave the treaty.

. However, the principal novelty is not to put on a high-explosive rocket or fragmentation of - too expensive and inefficient event, especially with regard to heavy missile system. As a result of the joint work of the military and professionals DIC was invited to a landmark decision. The novelty lies in the high combat effectiveness due to the merger of three technologies: classical missile, a hypersonic gliding and fundamentally new warhead.

All these technologies exist and tested

This will provide greater flexibility in the application of combat various conditions and the development of military conflict. rocket will be equipped with several hypersonic maneuverable units of the third generation, on which work is carried out in parallel with the now already summer products of the second generation now passing tests for other RK. The first was the "Albatross". Second-generation products that pass the test now, though, and fly, but still have a number of important childhood diseases of the new technology.

Russian Fear of U.S. Hypersonic Missiles Threatens New Arms Race

By Matthew Bodner
Feb. 12 2015 20:13
Last edited 20:13

Yevgeny Stetsko / VedomostiAnother piece of the Russian hypersonic puzzle may have been unveiled last week, when President Vladimir Putin signed an order uniting Russia's largest defense contractor, the Almaz-Antey air-defense concern, with several smaller military space firms.

While conflict between the United States and Russia over Ukraine has raised talk of a new Cold War, another feature of that era has also begun to re-emerge — the missile race.

A new arms rivalry between Russia and the United States is heating up as the two major military powers rush to develop a new class of hypersonic, non-nuclear missiles that can strike any target on the globe within one hour of launch with devastating accuracy.

The United States is leading the chase for the new weapons, which Russia firmly believes poses a significant threat to its own nuclear missile forces.

"Russia considers this trend as a path to obtaining [non-nuclear] means of depriving Russia of its deterrent capability," Dr. Eugene Miasnikov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies told The Moscow Times.

Russia's sensitivity to threats to its nuclear deterrence could lead it to mistake a hypersonic missile launch as the opening moves of a larger attack, some analysts say, arguing that the weapons are so destabilizing that their mere development could spark a nuclear war between major powers.
Hypersonic Weapons 101

Hypersonic missiles are being developed in the United States as part of the Conventional Prompt Global Strike program, a loosely defined Department of Defense initiative to develop the capability to accurately hit targets with non-nuclear intercontinental missiles in record time.

The idea has its roots in U.S. post-9/11 counter-terrorism strategy, when the United States decided it needed the capability to hit targets as soon as they had been located.

To date, a reported $1 billion has been spent on the Conventional Prompt Global Strike program. A few billion dollars more would likely be needed to attain true hypersonic capability, according to James Acton, a senior associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The most prominent example of hypersonic weapons currently in development are so-called "boost-glide" weapons.

These are missiles that, instead of arcing into space before coming down on their target, are fired at a shallow trajectory that barely exits the atmosphere. After reaching a hypersonic speed, the missile's warhead is released and glides the rest of the way to its objective.

As the weapon begins to glide, its relatively shallow angle of approach makes it extremely difficult to track and defend against — a detail Russia's leadership finds troubling.
Lockheed Martin

A computer rendering of a U.S. hypersonic test vehicle. The missile's casing is falling away to allow the black warhead to detach and plunge back into the earth's atmosphere.

Russian Answer

While hypersonic weapons are still in the development phase, they have already raised the prospect that Russia might pull out of Cold War nuclear arms treaties with the United States.

President Vladimir Putin in 2013 warned that the hypersonic missile development "could negate all previous agreements on the limitation and reduction of strategic nuclear weapons, thereby disrupting the strategic balance of power."

Nuclear arms control agreements between Russia and the United States have only gotten shakier since then.

In July of last year, amid the tensions of the Ukraine crisis, Washington suggested Moscow had violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans an entire class of nuclear missiles.

In October, Putin told Serbian newspaper Politika that he considered Western sanctions over Ukraine an attempt to "blackmail Russia" and that the West should "remember the risks that a spat between major nuclear powers incurs for strategic stability," news agency Reuters reported.

Little information is available on the state of Russia's domestic hypersonic program, but the head of Russia's Tactical Missiles Corporation, Boris Obnosov, said last year the company is working with dozens of firms to implement a development program for a hypersonic missile. The Tactical Missiles Cooperation produces many of Russia's guided missile systems.

Another piece of the Russian hypersonic puzzle may have been unveiled last week, when President Vladimir Putin signed an order uniting Russia's largest defense contractor, the Almaz-Antey air-defense concern, with several smaller military space firms.

Though not directly related to the development of hypersonic missiles, the move might signal a greater focus on developing defense against the weapons.

Almaz-Antey did not respond to a request for comment.
Moscow's Fears

The United States seems so far to have failed to allay Moscow's fears that the missiles are being developed to target Russia rather than terrorist hideouts, said Carnegie's Acton.

Moscow has already worked hypersonic missiles into its long-standing grievances against the United States — including NATO expansion and the placement of missile defense systems in Europe.

"My biggest concern is that Russia will mistake a U.S. [hypersonic] attack against a neighboring state as an attack against Russia," said Acton.

Because the weapons do not follow ballistic trajectories, but glide and maneuver their way to the target, it is possible that Moscow would become confused about the missile's objective and believe Russia was the intended target. This would lead to a serious escalation of international tensions, and possibly provoke a counterattack.

But now is a bad time for dialogue. In recent weeks prominent U.S. politicians have advocated arming Kiev against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, raising the specter of a proxy war between the two former Cold War enemies.

Miasnikov said that so long as both sides remain at odds, any developments in the U.S. hypersonic program will be construed in Moscow as a threat.

In any case, the weapons will be inexorably linked to U.S.-Russia bilateral relations because the way Russia perceives them to threaten its nuclear forces.

The Pentagon should work to better understand what it needs the weapons in question for, and present Russia with concrete proposals to mitigate the risk in deploying them, according to Acton.

For Moscow's part, "[it] should respond to such an offer constructively," he said.

Contact the author at m.bodner@imedia.ru

Werewolf wrote:Themoscowtimes belongs to US an NGO camoflauged shit propaganda paper.

ahmedfire wrote:Five mach aircraft ! , it can escape from any present air to air/ ground to air missile

magnumcromagnon wrote:

ahmedfire wrote:Five mach aircraft ! , it can escape from any present air to air/ ground to air missile

Nah, S-400 is capable of intercepting Mach 16 targets, and S-500 will be capable of intercepting Mach 21 targets.

George1 wrote:i transfer it to strategic rocket and space forces

Viktor wrote:Beacuse US lags in hypersonic defenses ... now Russia is pressing on with its hypersonic cruise missiles

New Russian Fuel Would Allow Missiles To Fly Faster Than Five Times The Speed Of Sound, Could Increase Tensions With US

GarryB wrote:

Obviously one problem is propulsion or indeed multiple propulsion systems for different stages of flight.

The SR-71 showed what could be done in that regard... it uses two large turbojet engines, but in a special arrangement that allows the air to bypass the turbojet engines and just pass through empty tubes to the rear where the after burner is.

An empty tube with an afterburner on the end is called a ramjet, where air is sucked in and compressed and then fuel is added and ignited generating thrust.

So you simply use the turbojet engine to get the aircraft into the air and put it in full after burner and climb. As you get faster and faster you start feeding air around the turbojet till eventually all the air is going around the turbojet and you can shut the turbojets down and just run on ramjets.

At very high speeds turbojets have problems because the rotational speeds of the blades in the engines gets so high the blades break and the engines overheat.

So, I wonder, how could the heat on a missile tip be conducted thro a missile and then transferred to the propulsion and cooling units?
Currently, I think insulators are used ie something that will stop the heat spreading into the missile. But surely that is hindering the missile AND a waste of energy?

There are a few ideas... one is to use materials that remain strong when heated to high temperatures like Titanium, or ceramic materials. Another option is ablative materials like those used on the heat tiles of the Space Shuttle. Yet another option is a porous skin on the leading edge where friction with the air heats the surface, where you can pump fuel through to keep it cool. Rocket nozzles for very large missiles and space rockets use this method to keep the nozzles from melting already so it is not as far fetched as it might sound.

Obviously there would be problems if you get a fuel blockage and the fuel stopped flowing...

So getting back to my point,I wonder how could the missile draw friction heat in from the tip to enhance performance( and indeed keep the missile intact)?

I rather suspect the final answer will be a combination of new heat resistent ceramic materials that use fuel to distribute heat to the fuel tank and could be used to prep the fuel before it goes to the engine.

Maybe decades into the future,a technology can be developed to absorb laser energy and redirect it towards an attacker?

Like a mirror?