MOSCOW, April 1 – RIA Novosti, David Narmania. The United States reported that a hypersonic missile was being tested. The flight failed. The Americans have not been able to create their own “next generation weapon” for over two decades. About the main difficulties – in the material of RIA Novosti.

The launch of the AGM-183A ARRW prototype (called a rocket) took place on March 13. “The tests weren’t successful. We didn’t get the data we needed,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

Prior to that, the AGM-183A was tested in December and did quite well, according to the Pentagon. The prototype was dropped from a B-52H bomber, after which the solid propellant engine turned on and accelerated the rocket to five times the speed of sound. At the end of orbit, the prototype was blown up.

In general, last year was successful in the hypersonic program for the USA: flights in May and July also went smoothly.

But the current fiasco is restoring the situation a year and a half ago – in 2021 all three launches turned out to be failures. Because of this, Congress has almost tripled funding – from $308 to $115 million.

Washington has been following hypersound for a long time – they started talking about it in the early 2000s. They created the DARPA Falcon HTV-2 project, began developing the X-51A Waverider cruise missile. However, both programs were closed.

Now, in addition to the ARRW, they are working on several more options for hypersonic weapons. But none of the samples have yet appeared in the army.

“We didn’t have a locomotive for this technology before. <...> There was no need. Now everything is different. We urgently need to catch up: Moscow and Beijing are ahead,” US Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe said in November.

But you have to fork. The Pentagon demanded $4.7 billion. Three hundred hypersonic missiles will cost about $18 billion over the next 20 years, one-third more than the same number of medium-range ballistic missiles, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And that’s without factoring in development and testing costs.

As you can imagine, hypersonic weapons differ from conventional weapons primarily in speed.

However, the same Topol-M, which entered service in 1997, accelerates to several Mach numbers. However, it can be calculated and dropped along a ballistic trajectory, that is, by air defense systems.

Hypersonic missiles are a much more difficult target. They just don’t fly at a speed higher than five Mach numbers – they maneuver. Nothing can stop them.

In addition, this area is not limited by any international agreement. Although missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads.

Russia is the only country officially armed with hypersonics so far. It’s kind of a trio.

Earlier than others, “Daggers” entered service – in 2017. They are launched from airplanes. The carrier is usually the MiG-31K. There is an option with the Tu-22M3M.

In the war, these missiles were first used in Syria on February 19 last year. Then in Ukraine: On March 22, an underground Soviet-era arsenal was destroyed in the mountains of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Attacks on Ukrainian military infrastructure continue.

In December 2019, Avangard was put on combat duty capable of accelerating up to Mach 27. It has an intercontinental range. The controlled unit is launched with the help of a ballistic missile – this is what Sarmat ICBMs are designed for.

According to the American portal Popular MechanicsThe “Pioneer” receives two megaton warheads – twice the size of the single American Minuteman III ICBM and 130 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

In August 2022, the world’s first hypersonic anti-ship missile, the Zircon, entered service. In January, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, equipped with such weapons, entered combat service.

“The point is that even this single ship has significantly changed the balance of power at sea, in the Northern Fleet, in our favor,” emphasizes Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences.

In his opinion, such a frigate could single-handedly disable an aircraft carrier or several ships. Therefore, Americans have something to worry about.

Adds a headache and China. Hypersonic is not yet officially in the PLA, but ICBMs for such weapons entered the troops in 2019. Specifically, the DF-17.

And the tests of the Chinese are much more successful. In 2021, a hypersonic glider detached from the launch vehicle flew around the globe and struck a hypothetical target with an accuracy of tens of kilometers.

American Chief of Staff Mark Milley likened it to the Soviet Union launching Sputnik in 1957. For the first time in the 21st century, we are talking about the technological accumulation of the United States in the field of security. Previously, only the USSR could solve such problems. Recently, two countries have already been able to do this.