Bad news for Shoigu: America unexpectedly quickly catches up with the Russian Vanguard
The tests were jointly conducted by the US Army and Navy with the participation of the United States Missile Defense Agency.
This was the second test in a row. The first took place on October 30, 2017 at the same rocket range.
The Pentagon report says nothing about the characteristics of the hypersonic unit. What is its speed and how much did it fly during the last test. It is only reported that the C-HGB has developed a speed exceeding the lower hypersonic boundary of 5 M. There is no data on how it is aimed at the target, what are its dynamic qualities when maneuvering at hypersonic speed, what is the height and relief of the flight. Instead of all this, a clearly disinformation photograph is offered, capturing a block that is four heads taller than a naval officer standing nearby.
The fact is that the C-HGB is a glider, an aircraft making a planning flight. And, therefore, its profile cannot in any way be symmetrical with respect to the center line. The photograph shows a typical aerial bomb, which is difficult to call even correctable.
Regarding the glider profile, we know something, for example, from the Russian combat planning hypersonic Avangard block, which at the end of last year were equipped with UR-100N UTTX silo-based ICBMs. In the future, this glider should be used in the passing test of the Sarmat ICBM. About the form of the "Vanguard" it is very approximately possible to say that it is "flattened," that is, using the lifting force of the wing, without which planning would not be possible.
The Russian glider develops a speed of 20 M. The power of a thermonuclear charge is from 800 ct to 2 Mt.
There is also a Chinese hypersonic glider DF-ZF, developing a speed of 10 M. Its development is close to completion. The device began to be tested in 2014. After only two years, all of his test flights completed successfully. And, according to experts, it can be adopted later this year.
Russia, on the other hand, has taken more than 30 years from the beginning of scientific research in a completely new field of creating vehicles flying at unbelievable speeds to obtaining workable samples. In the mid-80s, a topic with the code “4202” was opened in the Reutov NPO Mashinostroyenie (where the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile was also developed). Well, the mass production of gliders, which were named "Vanguard", began only in 2018. And all three decades (minus the period of scatter and vacillations due to the collapse of the Soviet Union), Reutov designers, with the support of scientists from academic institutions, created unique weapons. And then in the process of protracted trials brought him to mind.
The American designers of the planning block C-HGB from Dynetics Technical Solutions (DTS) did not start from scratch. They picked up the development of the block, which began in the mid-zero years with Sandia National Laboratories belonging to the US Department of Energy. Laboratories, two of them dealing with the problems of non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons, have created prototypes of the experimental hypersonic warhead Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW). AHW has been tested twice - in 2011 and 2014.
In 2011, a speed of 8 M. was reached. Block, flying 3700 km, fell in the calculated area of the ocean. The tests pursued limited goals - checking the thermal protection of the device, studying the aerodynamic characteristics of the flight, checking the achievement of long-range flight. Checks of maneuverability and controllability of the unit were not carried out. The second flight, in 2014, crashed. The missile, which was supposed to disperse AHW, got out of control in the fourth second, in connection with which the team was sent to destroy it.
By the way, there are images of the AHW block, which is completely different from the C-HGB photo provided by the Pentagon for open access.
And with such a not too solid baggage, DTS began to urgently bring the semi-finished product to the flight instance of the C-HGB, which is now being tested.
And the urgency is due to the fact that in the Pentagon after a demonstration by Russia during Putin’s appeal to the Federal Assembly of commercials with achievements in the field of the latest strategic weapons, great excitement began. Illusions shattered that the US victory in the Cold War was final and irrevocable.
US Under Secretary of Defense Michael Griffin literally began to bombard Congress with reports that both Russia and China had gone so far in creating hypersonic weapons that it really threatens America’s security. And he was able to knock out very serious money from the congressmen for conducting OCD on hypersound. The money was received, and several OCDs were immediately opened to create hypersonic missiles in the interests of all the arms of the United States - the Army, Navy, Air Force and ILC. The leading military-industrial complex corporations, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing, seized on the contracts.
In this case, the C-HGB glider plays a very important role in these programs. They should be equipped with missiles created as part of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) program - "Long Range Hypersonic Weapons." It will be a ground complex. However, it is planned to further adapt it for use on surface ships and submarines - this program is called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS).
The LRHW project, whose main executor was Lockheed Martin Corporation, which has displaced DTS into the background, is advancing at a high speed. In 2021, it is planned to begin testing the entire complex “in a set”, that is, a new solid-fuel medium-range rocket AUR (All-Up-Round) equipped with a C-HGB glider. And in 2023, it is planned to deploy the first battery of hypersonic systems.
At the beginning of this year, thanks to the slide of the LRHW project that appeared on the Internet and was shown at a conference of the US Army's Accelerated Development and Critical Technologies Directorate, certain specifics appeared regarding the proposed capabilities of this complex.
The complex is located on a wheeled chassis similar to the chassis of the Patriot air defense system. The combat vehicle is equipped with two transport and launch containers with AUR missiles with C-HGB gliders. After launch, the rocket accelerates to a speed of 8-10 M a combat unit, which, having separated from the rocket, begins an independent flight with maneuvering and natural braking in the atmosphere. However, in the final section of the trajectory, the glider’s speed should exceed 5 M. According to experts, the glider’s flight range, taking into account the missile’s range, can reach 4-5 thousand km.
The readiness of the complex for the Navy is scheduled for 2028. It is intended primarily for the latest modification of the Virginia multipurpose submarines.
From the current situation in the United States with hypersonic weapons, two conclusions can be drawn. Two years ago, when the Americans had practically nothing even in the project, it seemed that they would be able to catch up with Russia in 8-10 years. However, it seems that their business is getting real - industrial - results much faster.
It is also clear that the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty was necessary to create medium-range missiles, which, in particular, will be used in LRHW ground complexes. And all the talk about the Russian Iskander was just a screen and a smokescreen.
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