The War of the Future Part 2 - China's Foray into Hypersonic Weapons

A Political Junkie at Viable Opposition - 1 day ago

In part one of this two-part series, I examined the most recent advances in Russia's military technology; the development of its Zircon (Tsirkon) 3M22 hypersonic missile, an advancement that led Washington's Government Accountability Office to state this: "*China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic weapons because their speed, altitude and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense systems, and may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities. There are no existing countermeasures.*" (my bold) In the second part of this posting, I will outline Chi... more »

The War of the Future Part 1 - Russia's Foray into Hypersonic Weapons

A Political Junkie at Viable Opposition - 3 days ago

While detailed information is scarce, it is clear that Russia is testing and preparing to deploy its latest high tech weapon, the 3M22 Zircon (Tsirkon) or SS-N-33 (NATO codename) hypersonic cruise missile. Some details of the capabilities of this weapon were announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin back in February 2019 when he stated that the Zircon hypersonic missile has a firing range of over one thousand kilometres, can accelerate to about Mach 9 (i.e. 9 times the speed of sound or 6905 miles per hour compared to 550 miles per hour for a Tomahawk Cruise Missile) and is cap... more »