The development of hypersonic weapons poses a serious threat to the US Navy. The US military intends to counteract warheads flying at a speed of several Mach with the help of space satellites and an SM-6 interceptor missile.
This was stated at the conference of the American Society of Naval Engineers by Vice Admiral John Hill.
According to the Sea Power publication, the concept of protection against hypersonic weapons provides for the deployment of tracking satellites in space that will detect the launch of a rocket and the separation of the first and second stages of the engines. Data from the spacecraft in real time will be sent to ships armed with the Aegis system to calculate the interception point of the target.
"SM-6 missiles have the ability to shoot down hypersonic warheads," John Hill said, adding that "this is our only line of defense against hypersonic weapons."
Recall that in December last year in the United States, the prototype of an aviation hypersonic missile could not leave the launcher under the wing of the B-52H aircraft. The fiasco occurred about five months after the second attempt to conduct flight tests of the ARRW rocket accelerator, which were partially successful. And the first attempt by the American Air Force was made in April 2021. In that case, as in this last test, due to an unspecified problem, it was necessary to abandon the launch.
Nikolay Grishchenko