Many countries either independently or with the help of other technologically advanced countries have the desire to develop and manufacture hypersonic weapons! The beginning is made with the creation of a wind tunnel, which will contribute to aerodynamic research in the respective flight areas.
A wind tunnel contributes to this research by studying the effects of air as it moves around solid objects. Note here, that the first wind tunnel was created in 1871 by Francis Herbert Wenham, several years before the introduction of the airplane. It is notable that the Wright brothers also constructed a simple wind tunnel to support their research.
As part of the development of RAMJET and SCRAMJET engines, a “trisonic wind tunnel” or TSTT is to be built at TUBITAK-SAGE, which will be capable of testing in the subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic speed ranges.
It is estimated that in the first phase, the interested country will move to create a hypersonic (> 1 Mach) anti-ship missile. In the second year, it is estimated that it will proceed with the development of a cruise missile with a speed of approximately or slightly greater than Mach 5 (so that it will be “baptized” and typically hypersonic).
The dream of hypersonic flight is nothing new. As early as the 1930s, research began on Ramjet engines, which in turn are a form of aerodynamic engine (air breathing jet engine). One of the disadvantages of the Ramjet engine is that it cannot operate without the existence of air flow (no ram air), so the corresponding carriers will have to be somehow (like a rocket engine) “accelerated” to the corresponding operating speeds.
The first example of an aircraft using a ramjet engine was the French Leduc 0.10 of 1949, while as early as the late 1930s German engineers Eugen Sager and Irene Bredt proposed the Silber Vogel (Silver Bird) as a response to the demand for an “Amerika Bomber”. Although the Silber Vogel did not go beyond concept level – as the technological leaps to be made were daunting – it nevertheless laid the groundwork for both the 1960 X-20 Dyna Soar (a lifting body) and the Space Shuttle of 1970.
Flying in special regions demarcating specific phenomena has always been, to say the least, full of challenges. Thus, the high-performance fighters that appeared at the end of WWII found themselves with the challenges of going into the supersonic range of speeds, especially when diving from high altitude. Similar challenges arose during the development of the A-12/SR-71 Blackbird.
To study these phenomena in depth, NASA used the X-15 to investigate hypersonic flight. The flights of the X-15 demonstrated the serious and insurmountable – for the time – challenges in a number of factors (from different aerodynamics to the strength of materials, etc.) of flying at these speeds. It was soon understood that the technology was not sufficiently ready to meet these challenges, and the matter was more or less forgotten.
The reversal came with the publication, on March 10, 2018, of the first – successful – launch of an operational hypersonic cruise missile by Russia. The latter has reported that initial versions of the missile (currently codenamed Kh-47M2 Kinzhal [dagger]) have already been used during its military operations in Ukraine, while it intends to integrate the missile into a number of surface units (possibly in of Kalibr) alongside or in conjunction with the 3M22 Zircon designed for use by both surface and submarine units.
The performance of the missile has not been officially known (at least in open sources), although it is safe to say that if it was actually used, it probably did not perform as expected. In any case, its public appearance in 2018 sparked a new mini-arms race in this area.
In aerodynamics, the supersonic range of speeds starts at Mach 5 and extends up to about Mach 10. Additionally, a flight to be considered moving at hypersonic speeds would have to take place within the atmosphere (since here aerodynamics and other conditions seriously affect the performance), typically at an altitude of less than 90 km. The table below shows the relevant areas:
To put some context, the fastest bullet is moving at about Mach 2 (~1800 mph). A hypersonic rocket exceeds this speed by 2.5 to almost 12 times. Because, as we mentioned, hypersonic flight will have to take place within the atmosphere, the challenges in the hardware (thermal stresses, resistance to shock waves, etc.) but also in the systems and means of direction are significant.
An important consideration is that these weapons (due to their kinetic energy) are not required (although they can) carry warheads. For example, the Kh-47M2 has a kinetic energy of up to 16.9 gigajoules which is equal to 4 tons of TNT! Ultrasonic weapons are classified into two major categories:
1. Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV), which are placed as cargo on (usually older generation) ballistic missiles. The latter, following a ballistic trajectory, carry the HGV to a certain height before launching it (giving it the necessary initial velocity).
2. Hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM), which are cruise missiles that incorporate some type of RAMJET or SCRAMJET engine. In this case they can be carried by a high-performance fighter (in the case of the Kh-47M2 this is the MiG-31) or via a booster launched from surface ships, or even from land bases.
So far the USA (with the AGM-183 ARRW, LRHW, and in collaboration with Australia, in the SCIFiRE program), Russia (with the 3М22 Zircon, Kh-47M2 Kinzhal and Avangard), and China (DF- ZF) have active HYPERSONIC weapons development programs. Of interest is the Indian BrahMos-II program to create a hypersonic cruise missile with a range of 600 km and a speed of about Mach 8.
Obviously, HYPERSONIC weapons pose new challenges to air defense. Their countermeasure is estimated to be possible only during the first stages of flight (especially HGVs) where the thermal trace of the launch of the ballistic missile – carrier can be detected by satellite platforms. On the other hand, the ability to maneuver, the “exotic” conditions created around them (eg, creating a plasma cloud, which by definition is 100% STEALTH, etc.) make them detectable, trapped and countered. extremely difficult. It is no coincidence that one of the proposed solutions is the “hunting” of the carriers (something not so easy) or a new regime of… certainty of mutual destruction (M.A.D: Mutually Assured Destruction)!
One of the reasons for writing this is to demonstrate in time the potential threat represented by the movements of countries such as Iran, Russia, North Korea, Turkey, etc. in terms of armaments. It is characteristic that now all these countries move in a logic of “domestic development of all the systems, subsystems and equipment” necessary for them to support the doctrine of great power.
Whether these are “words of the air” is of little importance, as these countries have shown that they have the program, the obsession and the tenacity to overcome any obstacles and find solutions. His example is “made in China” a few years ago we used it to indicate something inadequate or of poor quality and now we tremble if China stops its production.
