By Larry Bell
Monday, 12 Jun 2017 09:44 AM
On June 3, Russia tested a hypersonic missile
system a year ahead of a preannounced schedule I previously reported that it
says will make all U.S. defense systems obsolete.
Named "Zircon," Russia’s
international news site Sputnik suggests that the 4,600 mile per hour (six
times the speed of sound) missile with its 250 mile range will require only
three minutes and 15 seconds between launch and targeted impact.
The five-ton Zircon can reportedly be
installed on Russia’s nuclear-powered strike ship Pyotr Veliky. Military
analyst Vladimir Tuckkov expects that the system will be added to the country’s
arsenal between 2018 and 2020. Russian authorities report that its radar
target-seeker and an optical-electronic complex can trace and detect targets at
hypersonic speed with capabilities to destroy the most advanced warships and
aircraft carriers in a single strike.
Tim Ripley who covers defense issues for the
Jane’s Defense Weekly has confirmed that Zircon could render all Western
anti-aircraft defenses "obsolete." While warning that Russia appears
to be far ahead of U.S. in development, he also observes "But that doesn’t
mean there isn’t some black, super-secret project run by the U.S. Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA."
Whether or not the U.S. presently actually
has an effective defense countermeasure program in the works is publicly
uncertain. If so, it is curious why, as reported by Bill Gertz in The
Washington Times last February, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) had
then just released a request seeking information to identify defensive weapon
concepts to support an "analysis of alternatives" this year.
The MDA information request followed results
of a study conducted by a panel of Air Force experts last fall which concluded
that U.S. hypersonic weapon progress has fallen behind Russia and China. Their
report criticized the Pentagon for having "no formal strategic operational
concept or organizational sense of urgency." and faulted their "lack
of leadership" in developing countermeasures and defense solutions.
Those findings also led to a congressional
defense authorization bill signed into law last December that requires the
Pentagon to create a special dedicated office to address emerging hypersonic
missile threats.
Hypersonic missiles combine
"scramjet" technology with advanced targeting systems that offer
formidable offensive capabilities. Their propulsion is created by forcing air
from the atmosphere into a combustor where it mixes with on-board fuel — rather
than carrying both fuel and an oxidizer like traditional rockets. This feature
makes them lighter and faster . . . therefore far more difficult to intercept.
Russia reportedly deployed an earlier third
hypersonic glider warhead test on Oct. 25, 2016 aboard a RS-18 ballistic
missile launched from the Dombarovsky air force base in the southern Urals. A
nuclear-armed Yu-71 version is scheduled to go into operation by 2018 aboard a
new Pak DA stealth bomber now under development. Jane’s Intelligence Review
reports that Russia may be able to deploy up to 24 hypersonic nuclear delivery
vehicles between 2020 and 2025.
The publication India Today reports that
India is also developing a BrahMos II hypersonic missile in
collaboration with Russia using Zircon scramjet technology.
Beijing conducted its seventh successful
hypersonic test just three days after Russia demonstrated a second. Deployed
from the Shanxi Province Wuzhai launch center in central China, the DF-ZF glide
vehicle reportedly reached speeds over 7,000 miles per hour.
The Congressional Sino-U.S. Economic and
Security Review Commission reports that
China’s program is "progressing
rapidly," and that a new powered version (rather than glider) under
development may be fielded by 2025. The Commission warned that “The very high
speeds of these weapons, combined with their maneuverability and ability to
travel at lower, radar-evading altitudes, would make them far less vulnerable
than existing missiles to current missile defenses.”
As former U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet
intelligence director Captain Jim Fanell observes, "The threat of hypersonic
missile attack not only impacts conventional warfare scenarios like we are
seeing develop in the South and East China Sea, but it also puts U.S. nuclear
defense strategies at risk."
Further assessing this grave circumstance in
the Washington Free Beacon, House Armed Services subcommittee on sea power
Chairman Randy Forbes, R-Va., said," Beijing is committed to up-ending
both the conventional military and nuclear balance, with grave implications for
the stability of Asia."
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin
declared, "Whoever is first to achieve mastery of hypersonic weapons"
will overturn the principles of "how wars are waged."
Yet, as former Pentagon strategic forces
policymaker, Mark Schneider, observes, relative to Russia’s, “U.S. programs involving
hypersonic vehicles are modest by comparison."
We can fervently hope that a new Trump
administration and Republican-controlled Congress will aggressively change this
balance. Russia, China and the rest of the world must be given strong reasons
to believe that America will stand prepared . . . not sit back with cause to be
intimidated.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space
architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa
International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and the graduate program in
space architecture. He is the author of “Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits
of Climate Doom”(2015) and “Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind
the Global Warming Hoax” (2012). Read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
Source: newsmax.com
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