In their opinion, the United States is only at the beginning of the way to create such weapons, significantly lagging behind Russia.
MOSCOW, May 17. /tass/. The United States is only at the beginning of the way to create hypersonic weapons, significantly lagging behind Russia. At the same time, the Russian missile defense and air defense systems already available today will be able to successfully resist promising American hypersonic missiles. This opinion was expressed by military experts interviewed by TASS.
Dmitry Litovkin, editor-in-chief of the Independent Military Review newspaper, noted that the tests of the AGM-183A hypersonic missile conducted on May 14 from the Boeing B-52H strategic bomber of the US Air Force are a great achievement for the United States. "The fact that they finally managed to launch a rocket is a success, because they are losing to us and China in the hypersonic technology race. This gives them a base for creating both land and sea hypersonic systems. There is no doubt that they will make them," he said.
In turn, the editor of the Arsenal of the Fatherland, Alexey Leonkov, also noted the initial stage of the work of US specialists in the field of hypersonic weapons. "If we talk about the controlled hypersound program, they [the US] are at the first stage when they have learned to accelerate the target to the speed of Mach five numbers," he noted. - Now they need to teach this dummy to maneuver and hit the target accurately, not only in favorable conditions, when the sun is shining brightly and the sky is cloudless. When they carry out all these tests, it will be possible to say that they have a hypersonic combat complex, which will be the slowest among the hypersonic complexes line so far. This is the lowest stage from which hypersound begins."
The military expert said that the AGM-183A is a two-stage rocket, where the first stage is an upper stage, the second is a "dummy" that needs to be accelerated to hypersonic speed. This project was launched based on the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon project.
As Leonkov noted, in 2019, the US Congressional Research Service, summing up the interim results of hypersonic programs, reported that in order to master the technology of controlled hypersound, Americans will have to create a number of breakthrough technologies. After that, there was a reduction in the program, and then the M-183 was chosen as the most promising, because a lot of groundwork was done on it. In addition, there was the X-51A rocket, which also went according to the hypersound program. All these reserves were combined. In 2020-2021, this missile was tried to be launched from under the wing of a B-52 bomber, but all attempts were unsuccessful.
"They did work on the mistakes, and on the 14th they managed to undock the rocket from the bomber and accelerate it to five Mach. This is all they managed," the expert stressed.
Countering hypersonic missiles
According to Litovkin, it is not yet possible to talk about the emergence of a threat to Russia in connection with the development of hypersonic weapons by the United States. "We have S-400 and S-500 complexes that "see" hypersonic targets <...> and they can intercept them. That is, we are again one step ahead of the United States," he said.
The military expert also recalled that Russia has an Avangard missile system with a controlled hypersonic combat unit, which the American missile defense system will not be able to resist.
Leonkov also stated that the S-300V4 and S-400 missile systems are armed with anti-aircraft guided missiles that can shoot down maneuvering hypersonic targets flying at a speed of Mach 12 numbers.
Russian developments
Leonkov also noted that Russia is not standing still in the development of hypersonic weapons. "We are now making hypersonic air-to-air complexes to shoot down carriers of such hypersonic missiles at distant borders. That is, until he can apply this complex to us. Our hypersonic complexes are already flying at speeds of 8-10 Mach numbers. And if we are talking about ballistic complexes of intercontinental missiles, then, for example, the speed of the Avangard complex is 27 Mach numbers. We also have hypersonic anti-ship missiles, which the Americans still have only to dream about," the expert said.
In turn, the editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko noted that the United States is actively working on supersonic weapons, despite a number of failures and lagging behind in comparison with Russia. "There should be no illusions that sooner or later this program will be brought to the stage of starting mass production of specific types of weapons and military equipment. <...> In five to seven years, obviously, the US will already start full-scale production," he said.
The military expert stressed that it is critically important for Russia to take into account that hypersonic weapons will enter service with the American army. Taking into account the new challenges, it is necessary to make appropriate changes to the Russian aerospace defense system.
"First of all, full-scale serial production of fifth-generation S-500 anti-aircraft missile systems is needed, which is capable of combating such targets and threats. And plan opportunities to build up S-500 groups in those theaters of military operations where the threat of the use of hypersonic weapons by the Americans after some time will be a likely scenario," Korotchenko said.
US Hypersonic Missile Test
On May 17, the US Air Force announced the successful testing of a prototype hypersonic weapon under the ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon) program. On May 14, a Boeing B-52H strategic bomber of the US Air Force successfully launched an AGM-183A hypersonic missile developed under the ARRW program off the coast in southern California. After separation from the aircraft, the unit developed a speed five times faster than the speed of sound. The US Air Force noted that "the test was carried out flawlessly."
At the end of March 2022, the representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Vice Admiral Ron Boxall, said that the United States expects to deploy three batteries of long-range hypersonic missiles and four medium-range batteries in the next five years.
According to him, the US administration's plans "include the deployment of hypersonic [weapons] on land, air and sea-based platforms." He clarified that the authorities hope to complete the development of a prototype hypersonic weapon under the ARRW program and the deployment of a hypersonic air-launched cruise missile on F-15 fighter-bombers in 2027.