Who Will Win in Hypersonic Missile Development?

PYONGYANG – North Korea has tested a new medium-range solid-fuel hypersonic missile. That suggests a race in development is intensifying to get the next generation of long-range rockets that are difficult to track and intercept.

The United States, China, Russia and other countries have also developed hypersonic weapons in recent years.

Who Will Win in Hypersonic Missile Development?

1. Advanced Missile that flies low at a speed of 6,200 km per hour

According to Reuters, the warheads they launch usually move at more than five times the speed of sound or around 6,200 kilometers per hour (3,850 mph), often at relatively low altitudes.

Despite the name, analysts say the main feature of hypersonic weapons is not speed – which can sometimes be matched or exceeded by traditional ballistic missile warheads – but maneuverability.

North Korea’s first hypersonic missile test in 2021 featured a glider-shaped warhead, while a launch in 2022 used what South Korean military officials and analysts say was actually a cone-shaped maneuverable reentry vehicle (MaRV), or ballistic missile warhead. capable of maneuvering to hit the target. target.

State media said North Korea’s latest tests were aimed at perfecting the arsenal to be able to strike any target in enemy territory around the world quickly, accurately and powerfully.

Combining a launch vehicle with a missile that can launch it partially into orbit – a so-called fractional orbital bombardment system (FOBS) – could further eliminate an enemy’s reaction time and traditional defense mechanisms.

In contrast, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) carry nuclear warheads on ballistic trajectories that travel into space but never reach orbit.

2. Russia Is the Winner

In February, Russia first fired a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile toward Ukraine, researchers said. President Vladimir Putin hailed the weapon as part of a new generation and Moscow has also tested it on submarines and frigates.

China launched a rocket carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle that flew through space in 2021, circling the globe before hurtling toward its target, but missed by about twenty miles.

In September 2021, the United States said it had tested an air-breathing hypersonic weapon – meaning it could fly itself through the atmosphere like a cruise missile – in the first successful test of that class of weapon since 2013.

3. North Korea Guided by Russia

At a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party in January 2021, leader Kim Jong-un set securing such weapons as one of the five main goals of a five-year plan to increase military power, alongside the development of solid-fuel ICBMs and nuclear submarines.