Countermeasures for hypersonic weapons

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on countermeasures against hypersonic weapons, which travel at speeds exceeding 1.5 km/s. Conventional interceptors must also be hypersonic and agile to effectively engage these missiles, as they require rapid course corrections. The use of lasers is challenged by the plasma sheath surrounding hypersonic missiles, which dissipates energy. Additionally, the conversation highlights the limitations of current interception technologies, such as Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS), particularly in urban defense scenarios.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of hypersonic missile dynamics and speeds
  • Familiarity with interceptor missile technology and capabilities
  • Knowledge of laser weapon systems and their operational limitations
  • Awareness of Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) and their deployment challenges
NEXT STEPS
  • Research advancements in hypersonic interceptor missile technology
  • Explore the physics of plasma flow control in hypersonic flight
  • Investigate the effectiveness of CIWS in urban environments
  • Examine historical case studies of missile interception, such as the SR-71
USEFUL FOR

Defense analysts, military strategists, and engineers involved in missile technology and countermeasure development will benefit from this discussion.

  • #211
boneh3ad said:
Russia goes out of their way to oversell their stuff.
Yes they do. The Moskva was an invincible flagship. Now it's an artificial reef at the bottom of the Black Sea.
 
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  • #212
boneh3ad said:
Kinzhal was never a superweapon. But Patriot has a history of being seriously oversold (e.g., in the Gulf War when it was sold as having a nearly 100% success rate against Scuds and apparently had a nearly 0% success rate in reality). So to me this is very interesting because it's a very public demonstration of how much improvement these systems have had.
It's worth noting that PAC-3 is almost an entirely different weapons system than the Gulf War era Patriot. It follows the US tradition of keeping the same name for a system even when basically everything about it has been redesigned.

Unlike Patriot Classic, Pac-3 has an active radar seeker (in the missile itself), uses small maneuvering rockets for terminal maneuvering rather than aerodynamic forces, and is hit-to-kill rather than proximity fused. It is shorter range, but it's been heavily optimized for terminal defense against short to medium range ballistic missiles like Kinzhal/Iskander, and we've been testing it against aeroballistic targets like Boosted Zombie (basically an ATACMS converted to be a target missile on top of a Terrier booster). It's probably one of the best shorter range air defense systems in existence.
 
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  • #213
Vanadium 50 said:
Yes they do. The Moskva was an invincible flagship. Now it's an artificial reef at the bottom of the Black Sea.
As some guys I fly with in DCS would put it. "It has been promoted from surface combatant to submarine."
 
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  • #214
https://www.404media.co/ukraine-is-jamming-russias-superweapon-with-a-song/
The Ukrainian Army is knocking a once-hyped Russian superweapon out of the sky by jamming it with a song and tricking it into thinking it’s in Lima, Peru. The Kremlin once called its Kh-47M2 Kinzhal ballistic missiles “invincible.” Joe Biden said the missile was “almost impossible to stop.” Now Ukrainian electronic warfare experts say they can counter the Kinzhal with some music and a re-direction order.
...
Once the song hits, Night Watch uses Lima to spoof a navigation signal to the missiles and make them think they’re in Lima, Peru. Once the missile’s confused about its location, it attempts to change direction. These missiles are fast—launched from a MiG-31 they can hit speeds of up to Mach 5.7 or more than 4,000 miles per hour—and an object moving that fast doesn’t fare well with sudden changes of direction.

“The airframe cannot withstand the excessive stress and the missile naturally fails,” Night Watch said. “When the Kinzhal missile tried to quickly change navigation, the fuselage of this missile was unable to handle the speed…and, yeah., it was just cut into two parts…the biggest advantage of those missiles, speed, was used against them. So that’s why we have intercepted 19 missiles for the last two weeks.”
 
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