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| Hypersonic missile | |
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by cthia
» Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:07 pm
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cthia
Posts: 14951
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Russia claims to have used hypersonic missiles on Ukraine. The US is scheduled to test its version soon.
Is this new technology a game changer, or a weapon looking for a mission? Time sensitive strikes seem to be its one mission so says some analysts. In a non nuclear war, they seem to yield an advantage. Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense |
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| Re: Hypersonic missile | |
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by Joat42
» Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:38 am
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Joat42
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The US has experimented with hypersonic missiles for a very long time now but so far they haven't managed to produce something that works except the X-51 prototype vehicle which was 12 years ago. And time sensitive strikes seems like a good fit, but there's also the fact that it's harder to stop. I'm ambivalent about how much of an advantage it gives, in most situations conventional missiles works just fine, plus they are probably much cheaper and readily available in numbers that can saturate most defenses. I guess we'll find out in time, unfortunately. --- Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer. Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool. |
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| Re: Hypersonic missile | |
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by Daryl
» Sun Mar 20, 2022 5:53 am
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Daryl
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Hypersonic means much faster than speed of sound. At 5760 kph the WW2 V2 rocket would qualify. As it was used militarily in 1944, it predates the Russian stuff.
Not as accurate, and a higher trajectory, but a ton of amatol was destructive. |
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by Joat42
» Sun Mar 20, 2022 12:19 pm
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Joat42
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Hypersonic is generally defined as traveling at Mach 5 or higher fairly low in the atmosphere (< 10km or 33.000ft), the V2 rocket was a ballistic trajectory missile that went to the edge of space before returning which doesn't make it a hypersonic missile regardless of it's terminal velocity. The difference here is that a hypersonic missile cruise at high speeds while a ballistic missile reaches high terminal velocity by falling. --- Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer. Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool. |
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by Arol
» Sun Mar 20, 2022 3:09 pm
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Arol
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Maybe the simple answer is that they are running low conventional versions of their Precision Guided Missiles in the immediate battle area. It’s no big secret that their logistics is abysmal.
So using a state-of-the-art hypersonic version is a way of keeping up the impetus of their attack. Whatever reason, on one of the war tracking sites, a poster noted that NATO reconnaissance, satellites would have been able to observe the missiles trajectory from start to impact, and as such been able to pick up some worthwhile info regarding capabilities |
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by Joat42
» Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:24 pm
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Joat42
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I don't think so, I think they are using Ukraine as a testbed for new weapons - just like they did in Syria. Consider that this was just one strike of many. --- Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer. Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool. |
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by Arol
» Sun Mar 20, 2022 9:33 pm
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Arol
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Makes sense! Take it a step further, testbed yes, but also a chance to show off their latest toys both to potential customers, and potential and present enemies. |
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by Mote
» Mon Mar 21, 2022 4:23 am
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Mote
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These missiles are supposed to be one of their primary weapons for penetrating nato air defences and closing off the Atlantic.
One would think they'd have a damn good reason (in their own minds, at least) for showing off their capabilities to every ground radar and awac that's been sent to eastern Europe, for the tech analysts to salivate over. |
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by The E
» Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:39 am
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The E
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I don't think they are. The fighting in Ukraine, which is now in the third week of a projected 4 day war, has exposed the enormous fragility of russian logistics - In Syria, Russia could do live-fire testing because Syria was nowhere near a peer adversary, whereas Ukraine absolutely is. IMHO, the use of these hypersonic weapons seems to be more of an attempt to keep up the facade of russian supremacy: What they are trying to say, essentially, is "we are still holding back", which on one hand, duh, of course they are since there haven't been any attempts to level Ukraine via mass bombing or nuclear strikes, but on the other.... you gotta figure that lobbing a cruise missile or ten fired from safe positions is not really a statement of strength but rather an admission of being incapable of driving a tank column into Kyiv to round up Zelenskyy. Bottom line is that Russia is running out of precision strike munitions. Their use of these highly advanced weapons against targets that are somewhat inconsequential just to keep up appearances isn't going to really change the stalemate this war is currently in, and in the meantime, Ukraine is still getting shipments of ATGMs, munitions, gear and even volunteers daily. I am somewhat optimistic that the momentum of this war is going to shift in Ukraine's favour pretty soon. |
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by Daryl
» Tue Mar 22, 2022 12:11 am
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Daryl
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News always needs to be vetted cynically, but I saw what looked like a "Golden BB" event.
A Ukrainian APC took out a Russian MBT with its 30mm. Rapid use of automated fire, followed by smoke and explosions. |
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