3 ms·

Those high speed middle parts will get slowed down by insane air resistance down to sub Mach 1 speeds in a couple hundred meters would be my guess. Non-aerodyna

• sudosysgen 5y ago
  How do you shoot projectiles at a hypersonic missile within a hundred meters of impact? Also, I don't think you appreciate the amount of energy in a 5 ton missile going at hypersonic speeds. For it to slow down within 200m, it needs to basically stop in 0.075 seconds.
  • jhgb 5y ago
    > For it to slow down within 200m, it needs to basically stop in 0.075 seconds For non-aerodynamic fragments, this is not very difficult. Furthermore 0.075 seconds for a 200m braking distance seems too short unless you're flying at something like Mach 15. But you're not flying at Mach 15 if you're 200 m from a ground target because you can't fly at Mach 15 at a 0-200m altitude -- certainly not with something powered and guided and equipped with sensors. Maybe a solid metal rod could do that but this ain't it. So it seems quite reasonable to assume that 200 m off the target, the vehicle will be at a significantly slower speed, much like ICBM RVs don't impact their targets at Mach 25 either.