Quote:
Originally Posted by iborg
Hi All
Quote from first link - Russia on Wednesday conducted a final test of a nuclear-capable glider that flies at 20 times the speed of sound, President Vladimir Putin said, adding that the weapon will be included in the country’s arsenal next year.
Quote from Gary's post - Putin ordered his military to start developing land-based missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads in the range prohibited by the treaty, including a hypersonic version.
These two quotes don't match to me!
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Hi Philip,
Thanks for the post.
These are two distinctly different developments.
The Russian hypersonic glide vehicles known by the name 'Avangard',
which was tested in late December 2018, are designed to be
multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) for use
with ICBMs.
The treaty that the United States and Russia has pulled out of is
called the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
It eliminated all US and Russian land-based ballistic and cruise missiles,
as well as their launchers, with ranges of 500–1,000 kilometers
(short medium-range) and 1,000–5,500 km (intermediate-range).
Air and sea-launched missiles were not covered by the treaty.
So when Putin says he has ordered the development of a hypersonic
glider for use on a medium range missile, that is a distinctly
new and different development to the 'Avangard' glider which was
designed as a MIRV payload on more powerful , heavy-lifting ICBMs.
The INF Treaty was primarily designed to try and reduce the risk of
a 'hair-trigger' nuclear war starting in the European and western
Russian theatres.
The treaty was verified by routine inspections between the Americans
and the Russians.
One complication has been that China, who is not a signatory to the
treaty, has been rapidly building large numbers of medium range
missiles.
The threat of a hypersonic glider on a medium range weapon is that
there is no effective anti-ballistic missile system that could prevent it
from delivering its thermonuclear payload.
Quote:
Also, what is the fastest airspeed that has been attained?
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On the 26th Dec 2018 test, the Russians claimed that Avangard was tested at Mach 27.