Trump accused Russia of stealing classified drawings of a "super-duper missile" from the United States
Russia stole American blueprints and built its "super-duper missile," former US President Donald Trump said, probably referring to hypersonic weapons. The candidate for the post of head of state also said that the United States needs its own "Iron Dome" - like Israel. Washington is developing hypersonic weapons, trying to catch up with Moscow in this area. What is known about this is in the material of "Gazeta.Ru".
Former US President Donald Trump at a rally of supporters in New Hampshire said that Russia during the presidency of Barack Obama (2009-2017) stole the drawings of a "super-duper rocket" from the United States and built it. The broadcast of the speech was conducted by the C-SPAN TV channel.
The former US president also said that the country needs its own Iron Dome anti-missile system (used in Israel) to shoot down Russian, Chinese and Iranian missiles.
"Super-duper rocket"
The same characteristic - "super duper" (super duper) - was used by Donald Trump when talking about the successful tests of an American hypersonic missile over the Pacific Ocean in March 2020.
During the tests, the rocket exceeded the speed of sound by 17 times, CNN reported . Journalists noted that the development is an attempt to catch up with Russian and Chinese weapons programs.
"If you, as you should, ask yourself whether we have already started producing hypersonic weapons in our country, then the answer is no. We hope [to start producing them] within a year," said Bill Laplante, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Procurement and Logistics, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in September.
However, the development of hypersonic weapons (capable of moving faster than the speed of sound - more than 5 Mach - and maneuvering in flight) in the United States is underway. According to Defense News, the US government intends to spend $15 billion for these purposes (from 2015 to 2024).
"Previously, we did not have the driving force to develop this technology and implement it into weapons systems. There was no need. Now there is a need, and we have a feeling [of the need] to urgently achieve this," [...] American Vice Admiral Johnny Wolf told CNN in November 2022.
Development and testing
Priority was given to HACM (Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile) - a hypersonic cruise missile with a ramjet air-based engine. It is capable of accelerating in the upper atmosphere to Mach 5 (about 6 thousand km/h).
"We consider tactical aircraft, mainly fighters, as the main carriers of HACM," US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown told reporters.
The AGM-183 ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon), an air-launched ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic gliding unit, is also being developed . A promising munition will be able to develop a speed of over 20 Mach (24 thousand km/h) and hit a target at a distance of 900 km. These missiles were supposed to enter service in 2022, but the deadline had to be shifted.
In August, the US Air Force launched the AGM-183 ARRW from a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber, Defense News reported. It is not specified whether the tests were successful. It is only known that "valuable information was obtained about the capabilities" of the rocket.
Prior to this, tests of the "fully operational prototype" of the ARRW were conducted in March 2023 and in December 2022.
The United States is also developing a long-range hypersonic missile system ( Long Range Hypersonic Weapon ). Its claimed range is 2.77 thousand km.
The Conventional Prompt Strike program is also being developed . It is assumed that the technology will allow the US military to hit any target on the planet in less than an hour after receiving the order.
Russian Hypersound
The Russian army is already armed with Kinzhal hypersonic airliners, Avangard hypersonic gliding block strategic missiles, and Zircon hypersonic missiles.
"We don't actually use it, but it exists," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March 2023.
The S-500 system has also been developed, which is allegedly capable of intercepting hypersonic missiles, among other things.
The head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, stated that the Russian army had used the Kinzhal hypersonic missile several times during military operations in Ukraine. According to him, she is being hit by particularly important targets.
Alexey Permyakov