missile guidance at hypersonic speeds/ISR at hypersonic speeds

so like everyone im sure u have been watching the news.

there is always the military dog and pony show they give to the plebs but the real stuff they save for quite launches in the middle of no where

it seems the US is fielding one HS missile and has another one working in the pipes.

I'm sure the navy will or has already gotten in on HSGV's or other neat PGM ready to hit targets in minutes when launched from a coast line, and it can even be just a kinetic impactor, no explosives and your target is gone.

Some of us likely remember the space shuttle and that when it was going hypersonic it would have a plasma bloom around it and it could not see or communicate outside this plasma envelope.

how are these Russian hypersonic cruise missiles navigate other than on internal navigation set(hopefully correctly) at the launch point seems silly not to have the ability for midcourse adjustments.

same goes for every other hypersonic weapon, i mean unless they will just all be HGV's and get their updates on the skip out of the atmosphere.

maybe i'm missing something???


i guess a tailed antenna or even a small sat com otherwise they might be fast but they seem a step back in what we already have in more agile systems, sometimes speed isnt everything

a reply to: bee1011

Aircraft, for decades, used inertial navigation systems. You align the system before launch, and it’s good for quite awhile after. Alert aircraft using INS would realign the system every 48-72 hours. It doesn’t require any outside it once it’s aligned, and can be quite accurate. There’s a great video on missile navigation that sounds funny as hell, but is quite true. The Missile knows where it is, because it knows where it isn’t.

a reply to: Zaphod58

i know the tomahawk uses a downloaded map and a few pathways, i think they scalped it from the B1-A program.



unless its armed with a nuke i would think it would need terminal guidance of some sort, RADAR is off the table and so is optical at that speed so no moving targets it would seem, does that mean China's DF-21 is dangerous but certainly not the fleet killer it claims to be.

it seems money spent on these program's(assume they aren't cross pollinating) the money could be spent on other things.


hypersonic are only good for weapons and MAYBE some sort of SSTO in the future.

a reply to: bee1011

EDIT

hypersonic weapons or HGV's seem they would only be good for stationary or known targets and likely using a nuclear weapon


no way we would use a MMIII to launch a non nuclear strike system, who ever we were launching it at would assume it was a nuke anyway.

TINE FOIL

imagine if they are developing these materials and propulsion methods for something else and not silly missiles and glides from the 80's( Pershing II). I would like to imagine there is some manned asset that is out there using these cutting edge speed demons to rip across the sky like a new SR-71, like some specter.

Ping times on something going hypersonic is going to get messy. With the directional phased antenna arrays and full network focus on the action will help connectivity. But what extra information can an of shore server provide when the x-box was banned years ago from export to some nations?

With all the tech and guidance packed into these things, being able to send an abort command might not be a bad thing, but would not expect too much network connectivity after mach 23, but who really knows what 5g is capable off when amped up?