According to american news sources, a
hypersonic gliding missile unit tested
by china has an intercontinental range
at a speed that none of the missiles in
the united states has yet. The american press notes that in the
middle stage of the flight.
The chinese
hypersonic missile is capable of being
over the south pole, bypassing the
american missile defense. At high speed it can glide to the target
from almost any direction which makes it
very difficult to detect and destroy
using existing weapons.
At present, the u.s missile defense
system is certainly not capable of
defeating the hypersonic weapons of Russia and China. The US missile defense system is
incapable of stopping a decisive nuclear
strike on its territory by these
adversaries.
A 2018 report by the U.S government
accountability office stated that China
and Russia are focused on developing
hypersonic weapons because of their
speed, altitude and maneuverability which
can defeat most missile defense systems. There are no countermeasures stated the
report.
In march 2018 the head of the
strategic command of the US armed forces
before which he had commanded air force
space Command General John E. Hayden, said
the united states had no defense against Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons.
To counter it the United States has
decided to urgently intensify work on
sensitive sensors in low orbits capable
of tracking the launch of hypersonic
missiles and the flight paths of their
gliding blocks.
General John E. Hayden, proposed directing
efforts to create anti-missile systems
placed in orbit of our planet. According to heighten's plan sensors
deployed on satellites could track the
launch of missiles and quickly transmit
this information to land and sea
complexes.
The U.S Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director lieutenant General Sam greaves
speaking at the washington center for
strategic and international studies, talked about developing a hypersonic
interceptor. The pentagon is completing a study of
options for solving this problem.
The
department is evaluating the
technologies that exist today for their
use to intercept hypersonic missiles and
proposals from designers and defense
companies. As per greaves the ABM Agency has
completed an analysis of possible
measures to ensure protection against
hypersonic weapons. High-speed interceptors and directed
energy weapons can help solve the
problem, but other options exist.
A rocket is the easiest to spot and the
hardest to hit during the acceleration
phase. After launch, the missile has a hot
exhaust that space sensors can easily
detect. However the acceleration phase lasts
about five minutes, a short time for the
missile defense system to hit the target.
At this stage the missile is least
maneuverable. the united states proposes
to use combat lasers against the
hypersonic weapons of China and Russia, which could shoot down missiles in the
acceleration phase. The sensors determine the launch, allowing you to see the missile after
which the combat laser is turned on
which destroys the hypersonic unit until
it separates from the carrier.
Currently
it is not known whether existing laser
weapons can hit such targets in seconds
or even fractions of a second. To defeat a hypersonic missile unit
before it is separated from the carrier
a huge power of the laser beam is needed. The idea of shooting down ballistic
missiles in the initial trajectory phase
is not new.
Therefore the united states and its
allies are trying to bring their land, sea and air based anti-missile weapons as
close as possible to the borders of a
potential enemy, to which Russia, China, North Korea and Iran belong. And in this regard the use of directed
energy weapons, including lasers
generally fits well into this concept.
The American military industrial
corporation raytheon posted on twitter
and animation showing the operation of a
laser system capable of intercepting
missiles. A message on the company's website
indicates that at present laser
interceptors are capable of hitting
unmanned aerial vehicles and in the
future they will become powerful enough
to stop hypersonic crews and ballistic
missiles.
Read Also:{European Union (UN) Condemns North Korea's Hypersonic Missile Launch}
Americans had a demonstrator based on a
boeing 747 and iodine oxygen laser. A less powerful system installed in a
boeing NKC-135A had successfully stopped
several missiles in mid-flight back in
the 1980s. U.S Air Force contracted for the yal1
airborne laser testbed in 1996 and in
2001 the airborne laser program was
transferred to MDA.
