Russia has been continuously making progress in the development of hypersonic weapons for 50 years. Military expert Alexey Leonkov told Izvestia about this on March 29.
“Controlled hypersound technology is primarily a technology of materials that can withstand loads and high temperatures at such speeds, and physical and mathematical modeling of flight and its implementation. So that the maneuvering hypersonic unit, departing from point A, gets to point B and at the same time performs unpredictable maneuvers to make it difficult to shoot it down. We did it,” he said.
The expert said that in 2018, Russia announced the Avangard, Dagger and Zircon complexes, after which Washington “strained all its financial muscles.”
“At first, Americans wanted to work on nine programs, in 2020 there were five of them, and in 2022 there were three. And despite the fact that they are reducing programs and additionally attracting specialists from Europe, Australia and Japan, they are not able to create a suitable flight model,” Leonkov said.
At the same time, the Accounting Chamber of the US Congress, summing up the results of the allocation of funds for hypersound each time, states: in order for America to receive its own controlled hypersound technology, breakthrough technologies are needed, he added.
“It is impossible to take hypersound right off the bat. Yes, you can make an object fly at hypersonic speed. But for him to maneuver and hit the target accurately at the same time is a difficult task from a technological point of view,” the military expert concluded.
On the eve of the Minister of the Air Force (Air Force) USA Frank Kendall reported that the last tests of hypersonic weapons conducted in the USA were not successful.
Earlier, the Defense News portal reported that the US Air Force conducted a test launch of a prototype hypersonic cruise missile Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (AGM-183A ARRW) of the air–to-ground class on March 13. It was noted that the test was the second launch of the ARRW combat prototype and focused on the comprehensive characteristics of the weapon.”
In September 2022, Troy Buffard, director of the Alaska-based Center for Security and Arctic Resilience, said that the hypersonic missile program developed by Russia was frightening. He recalled that the Russian Federation and China are armed with supersonic missiles capable of overcoming 6 thousand km / h at low altitude, as well as changing direction. At the same time, Buffard clarified, there are currently no ways to intercept such weapons.
