[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] How Far Have US-Russia Hypersonic Missiles Advanced?

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[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The United States and Russia are engaged in a tense standoff over the development of hypersonic missiles. The U.S. claims that Russia’s Zircon test launches are destabilizing the international security situation, while Russia warns of the possibility of the U.S. deploying hypersonic missiles in Europe.

The rush by the U.S. and Russia to develop hypersonic missiles is driven by each other's missile defense systems. The U.S. is developing missile interceptors such as the high-altitude missile defense system THAAD and the SM-3 surface-to-air missile. It is jointly developing the Mach 15 SM-3 Block 2A with Japan. Before the Block 2A is deployed, there are virtually no interceptors capable of countering hypersonic missiles.

Last month, Russia announced through a press release that the 4,500-ton Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate of the Northern Fleet successfully launched a Zircon missile, striking a ground target 350 km away. The missile, launched from the White Sea, reportedly flew at about Mach 7 (8,568 km/h) and hit a ground target along the Barents Sea coast.

Hypersonic weapons, traveling at speeds of at least Mach 5 (6,120 km/h), can strike anywhere on Earth within an hour, making them next-generation weapons capable of neutralizing missile defense networks.

Russia has already decided to deploy the Avangard hypersonic missile in active service. The unit operating the Avangard missile is known to belong to the Strategic Missile Forces. The Avangard, a type of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), reportedly reaches speeds over Mach 20 (24,480 km/h) and has a range exceeding 6,000 km. It can carry up to 16 independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) nuclear warheads, each with a yield of 100 to 900 kilotons (equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT). Russia claims this missile flies at altitudes between 8,000 and 50,000 meters at hypersonic speeds and can perform trajectory maneuvers, making interception impossible.

Russia is also known to have already deployed another hypersonic missile called the Kinzhal (Dagger). The Kinzhal, which can be mounted on MiG-31 fighter jets, is a strategic weapon deployed by the Russian Air Force, reportedly flying at speeds ten times the speed of sound (12,240 km/h). The Kinzhal has a range of 2,000 km and can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads.

The Russian Aerospace Forces successfully conducted the first launch test of the Kinzhal from a MiG-31 in March 2018 and are reportedly testing it on the long-range bomber Tu-22M3.

The U.S. showed interest in hypersonic weapon systems earliest but is the slowest to deploy them in active service. In the 1960s, the X-15 experimental aircraft successfully flew with a human onboard at hypersonic speeds, and in 2011, the U.S. conducted experiments with the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW).

Currently, the U.S. is developing hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) and hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM). Like Russia, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) oversees the development, with the Army developing one type, the Navy one type, and the Air Force four types of HGVs and HCMs. The reason for developing various types of missiles is that each military branch operates different platforms equipped with hypersonic missiles.

In its 2022 defense budget, the U.S. Department of Defense requested $3.8 billion for hypersonic missile development, and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) requested an additional approximately $250 million.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.