While military brass and defense policymakers worldwide are obsessed with hypersonic weapons, many ballistic missiles have flown historically at plus MACH 5 speed, which is usually the line of threshold when considering a hypersonic projectile. When people discuss hypersonic weapons, they often refer to cruise missiles that fly at ultra-fast speeds and are maneuverable in flight.
What Are Hypersonics?
Hypersonics comprises boost-glide vehicles, scramjet, ramjet projectiles, and rail-gun launched rounds. If one considers speed only, hypersonic missiles have been around since early in the Cold War. The United States had its Bumper rocket that could achieve MACH 5 and above. Other ICBMs could reach that speed but weren’t maneuverable in flight.
Russia Is a Trailblazer
The Russians and Chinese have jumped ahead in the arms race for hypersonic weapons, although the United States is catching up. Russia is the first country to develop hypersonics. The Kremlin has touted its 3M22 Zircon scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile. The Russians may have used it against Ukraine in 2024. The Zircon could be able to reach an impressive MACH 8. It may even fly up to 620 miles in range if Vladimir Putin can be believed, although he is known for over-hyping and lying about the specs of his weapons systems.
Nine other countries are working on hypersonic weapons of their own – even North Korea and Iran are on this list, which is a worry for South Korea, Japan, and the Middle East allies of the United States.
Russia Has the Fastest Model
The Zircon, which may even be able to hit MACH 9, is the world’s fastest hypersonic missile, making it difficult to shoot down. It is powered by a ramjet or scramjet engine, and its first test was in 2017. The Zircon is often sea-launched, and the first known deployment was on the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov. The Zircon was first conceived as an anti-ship missile; the land attack capabilities came later.
The Zircon reaches altitude with a solid fuel engine, and then the scramjet propulsion system takes over. Russian generals also boast about their Kinzhal ballistic missile, which can reach speeds of MACH 10 or more than 7,600 miles per hour.
Don’t Forget China’s DF-17
China has the DF-17 hypersonic glide missile that can hit velocities between MACH 5 and MACH 10, the military’s rocket forces claim, although Western intelligence hasn’t verified that precise speed. The West, particularly the United States, is looking at ways to counter Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles with interceptors that can also reach plus-MACH five velocity.
The United States Is Chugging Along
The U.S. military is developing hypersonic boost-glide and hypersonic cruise missiles. First, the hypersonic boost-glide conventional rocket motor sends the projectile to a high altitude. A glide body detaches from the body once the rocket motor runs out of fuel. The glide body “uses lift generated by its movement through the air to extend its range and maneuver to hit its target,” according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The glide body contains the warhead, and the projectile can fly at lower altitudes than a ballistic missile. It can also outmaneuver existing air defenses, such as the Russian S-400 and S-500 surface-to-air missiles.
The hypersonic cruise missile also uses a conventional rocket booster to accelerate until the supersonic combustion ramjet (or scramjet) takes over. “A scramjet uses oxygen from the air to burn its fuel, rather than carrying an oxidizer, as a rocket does, so it is known as an air-breather,” according to HowStuffWorks.com.
Scramjets require supersonic airflow and only begin to operate at speeds above MACH 4. “Although air-breathing engines tend to be smaller and lighter than rocket engines that carry both fuel and oxidizer, that size advantage is lessened by the size of the rocket booster used for the initial acceleration,” the Congressional Budget Office noted in a definitive report on hypersonic weapons.
In late 2024, the Department of Defense announced that battle labs within the Army and the Navy had jointly produced a hypersonic weapon and tested it at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The DOD calls this system a Common Hypersonic Glide Body as part of the Long-range Hypersonic Weapons system. The overall program is known as Conventional Prompt Strike.
The DOD thinks this will be the perfect weapon for maneuvering in anti-access/ area denial environments against China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran. The department has decided that the Army will use this hypersonic model for ground strikes and the Navy for anti-ship duties.
Even though the United States is late to the game, it continues to forge ahead in 2025. Congressional lawmakers and the defense press often pointed out that Americans were falling behind the Russians and Chinese regarding hypersonic capabilities, but that is slowly changing.
The Army is also testing its ground-launched Long-range Hypersonic Weapon and will send it to the troops at the end of FY25. It will be deployed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. This is a truck-launched weapon, so it can be shot and then scooted to another area for rapid fire.
Tsirkon Hypersonic Missiles. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
U.S. designers and engineers have done a commendable job playing catch-up to Russia and China. They started later than the adversarial nations, but if future testing can be successful, the Army and the Navy will be outfitted with hypersonics.
This is the wave of the future, and hypersonics are here to stay. The next evolution will be air defenses against hypersonic projectiles. Plus, the United States is working on the Golden Dome missile shield that will have the ability to counter hypersonic missiles fired at the country from enemies.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (June 12, 2019) B-52 out of EDW carries ARRW IMV asset for its first captive carry flight over Edwards Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christopher Okula)
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
