Why do Russia need hypersonic missiles

The world on our planet is caused, unfortunately, mainly by the balance of the strategic potentials of the main countries - rivals. Geopolitical parity was first broken in 1945 by the appearance in the US military arsenal of nuclear weapons.

In 1947, the USSR was able to create an atomic bomb, but the country's leadership was faced with the problem of delivering a warhead to the target. The first temporary measure was the copying of the American B-29 bomber, at that time served as the main carrier of weapons of mass destruction.

The appearance of intercontinental missiles again violated the strategic balance, this time in favor of the USSR. However, the ballistic trajectory was easily predictable, which created conditions for the destruction of the delivery vehicle at various stages of its flight.

In 1973, the armed forces of Israel faced the problem of low effectiveness of air defense systems against high-altitude and super-high-speed targets. At a huge height over the territory of the state flew a Soviet multipurpose aircraft MiG-25. All the actions usually used in such cases, including the launching of anti-aircraft missiles, proved useless. The unique ceiling and fantastic speed for those times simply did not allow them to catch up with the goal.

In the early nineties, development scientists in different countries began to search for weapons, which would be difficult to neutralize, even if detected by warning systems.

The developed hypersonic missiles of Russia became a response to the US program Prompt Global Strike (a means of a global instantaneous strike).

Counteraction to US domination in the field of strategic initiative is conducted in different directions.

One of them was the creation of combat blocks that can change the trajectory after they are separated from the head and reach the target from an unpredictable direction.

Another line of development of difficult-to-reach means of delivery has become Russia's hypersonic missiles. Their main difference from conventional ballistic missiles is the speed, many times exceeding the number M (which corresponds to approximately 1070 km / h).

The first experiments on the creation of new weapons, which would be difficult to intercept, began in the eighties. Dyna Soar X-20 was an American project of an unmanned orbital aircraft starting in the stratospheric layers of the atmosphere (at an altitude of about 30,000 m) from a supersonic aircraft. The answer could be the hypersonic missiles of Russia of the aerospace system "Spiral", capable of speeding up to 7 thousand km / h, but soon both programs were canceled. The costs of the design work proved to be prohibitive, even for the US economy.

Three decades have passed, but the task of maintaining strategic parity has not lost its relevance. "Zircon" - the so-called new hypersonic missiles of Russia.

2013, the International Aviation and Space Salon in Zhukovsky. The joint Russian-Indian company BraMosaerospace reports on plans to create weapons, which the newest and most promising missile defense systems can not intercept.

The first tests of a hypersonic missile in Russia showed that it can develop a speed that is three times higher than the American "Tomahawk" at altitudes ranging from 10 meters to 14 kilometers. The combat load is 300 kg, the design is two-stage. Overall dimensions: length about 10 meters, diameter 700 mm. The total weight at the start is less than 4 tons together with the shipping container.

The rocket "Onyx" P-800 underwater basing served as the basic design for the BZM Brahmos and the parallel developed anti-ship system Zircon. Design work began in 1999, and in June 2001, the first test launches were carried out at the training ground in the Indian state of Orissa. It is assumed that the new hypersonic missiles of Russia and India can be launched from MiG-29 aircraft.

Another alternative system of ultra-fast weapons, called "Cold", was tested at the Sary-Shagansky range in late 1991. At the heart of the power plant, the engine of the S-200 air defense missile with excellent characteristics was used in its design. The financial crisis did not allow to complete the tests.