Hypersonics

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This is my voiceover on hypersonic weapons and the Su57 and Su35S for SouthFront. (Click on graphic to access video)

From this, you will see that Russia has been developing a wide range of hypersonic weapons of various types, which equip aircraft of all types, from bombers to fighters, as well as surface craft, including relatively small, fast craft, and submarines. It also reveals that the Su57 is a fifth gen fighter of a different kind, not the kind of thing that a Western nation would build.

“Hypersonics” is a little misleading because this technology isn’t just about speed.

Let us remember that ALL ballistic missiles are “hypersonic”, meaning they are capable of speeds in excess of Mach 4. Even the WWII V2 could do that.

These days, when we talk about the effectiveness of hypersonic weapons, we are not talking about ex-atmospheric absolute speeds but about maneuverability— without which a missile’s trajectory is fixed, trackable and interceptable by something like THAAD.

Russia’s “hypersonic” weapons are all maneuverable. And with AI enhancement, now even harder to intercept! Patriots and THAAD? Not obsolete today — but soon.

Of course, hypersonic weapons still can be intercepted — since they slow down as they enter the atmosphere, making them easier to hit. And sometimes, if you shoot enough metal in the sky you get lucky. .

But such attempts often result in a lot of civilian casualties, as we have seen in Ukraine.

Israel, with one of the world’s most advanced multi-layer defense systems which include Patriot and THAAD , manage to shoot down just 2 out of 3 Yemeni hypersonic weapons on average, despite the Houthis somewhat primitive designs and targeting— and appear to have been ineffective against advanced Iranian missiles.

The Americans, however, are proudly deploying their very first hypersonic missile - the Dark Eagle —which has finally managed to pass two test firings— after failing so many times. They say they are deploying it, but how many do they have? Will it really work? If experience is anything to go by, it will take a few more years.

The Defense contractors, of course, have put out some impressive PR of what could be—but aint yet. Love the graphics.

Dark Eagle is based on conventional ballistic missile design which you can tell from the sexy sharp pointy nose and conventional aerodynamic controls, and it is very fast in exo-atmospheric flight, about Mach 17 —but how fast is its warhead or warheads on re-entry? How maneuverable? How interceptable?

The American MSM avoid such questions— deflecting by insisting that Oreshnik is just an old Soviet missile redesigned. No worries — we are the BEST! Oreshnik is ugly looking right?

In fact, however, Oreshnik is a new concept— by virtue of incorporating advanced technologies — a little slower in exo-atmospheric flight than Dark Eagle but capable of the kind of maneuvers that make it difficult, if not impossible to intercept outside the atmosphere or on re-entry.

It takes advantage of metallurgical and ceramic coatings that allow it to handle extreme heat, some say as hot as the surface of the sun, producing a plasma bubble that hides locations, while not interfering with maneuverability or speed and allowing its warheads to acquire enormous kinetic energies of almost nuclear proportion. It can destroy targets even deep underground.

At this point, the West has nothing to stop it.

By contrast, however, both Russia and China have anti-missile systems that can take down the “Dark Eagle”. That’s the S500 and HQ19 respectively, both of which have long range, exo-atmospheric capabilities and advanced tracking and target acquisition.

In fact, they can probably do interceptions with antimissile systems equivalent to the S400 and S300 thanks to innovations in radar tracking.

...,the reaction time of the S-400 and S-300V4 anti-aircraft missile systems to the appearance of hypersonic gliders when paired with the Sky-M radar system will be noticeably higher than when receiving target designation from the standard 96L6 and 9S15M4 Obzor-3 radar detectors, which do not have such high energy opportunities. In other words, the verified optimization of the radar architecture of the zonal-object air defense-missile defense areas in the European part of Russia is quite capable of minimizing threats from such sophisticated means of aerospace attack as the LRHW Dark Eagle complexes.

The Russians and the Chinese face existential threats to which the US appears oblivious — so they are highly pragmatic— and are systematically building their military capabilities to handle realistic scenarios, not the Hollywoodized stuff that the US defense industry thrives on. They are ready to rock & roll NOW!

In this video, which I narrated you will notice that Russia has just one regiment of Su57s, compared to the thousands of F22s and F35s in the Western arsenal.

Why?

Because they don’t need more than that in an scenario where they face off against NATO’s toy soldiers in Europe!

The Russians are pragmatists. Waste not, want not.

Those advanced radar systems I just mentioned are also good at detecting “stealth aircraft” such as the F35, which did not dare enter Iranian airspace during the recent 12 day war firing standoff weapons from outside — and still getting shot down, not that anyone is really talking about that!

Certainly, the Israelis are not admitting to anything more than that the Iranians could “paint’ their aircraft at a distance (somehow!)

The RM77 long range missile is now equipping Su35S fighters .

The Chinese have their equivalent as well (HQ19)

In addition, the Chinese have their own Fifth Generation fighters, the J20, for example in large numbers, at least 12 brigades. It is the most produced fighter of the post Cold War era. Why so many?

A different future war scenario….

Which means the US can no longer defend “the First Island Chain”, which includes Japan. They cannot even defend the Second Island Chain, including Guam and Hawaii.

But in Canada, we are ready!

Help Chappy go Hypersonic!

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