4 ms·
Ugh, I really hate that term. “Hypersonic” just means traveling faster than 5 times the speed of sound. We’ve had ballistic missiles capable of exceeding that s
by openasocket 2y ago
Ugh, I really hate that term. “Hypersonic” just means traveling faster than 5 times the speed of sound. We’ve had ballistic missiles capable of exceeding that speed since the 1950s. ICBMs are hypersonic. So, yes, GMD has been tested against hypersonic missiles.
The latest hype is around “hypersonic glide body” type weapons. Where instead of traveling a straight ballistic trajectory they have small control surfaces and are capable of maneuvering. Ironically, though, having to maneuver like that makes such missiles slower, not faster, than an equivalent ballistic missile. And their maneuverability isn’t exactly huge, because at those speeds even small turns will impose significant g forces. So there’s this weird tradeoff between speed and maneuverability.
- LargoLasskhyfv 2y agoHm yes, but depending on course/great circle distance ballistic missiles have an apogaeum between 1200km to 4500km. While anything which is 'boosted back down there' during ascent reaches maybe 300km max height, then doing 'skip reentry' stuff and/or powered steering at 100km to 200km. Which is less distance to cover.
- ttyprintk 2y agoI think the question was about hypersonic cruise, specifically whether ABM systems can detect a signature.
- moralestapia 2y agoEver since HN was taken over by LLMs you bump into these sort of arguments regularly. Indeed, it is pretty obvious how a real human would have interpreted and answered the question. I wish HN had a "flag as LLM" button.