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The past couple of years saw the first-ever combat use of hypersonic missiles. Russia fired numerous hypersonic missiles against Ukraine, while elsewhere, ongoing developments and test flights only reinforce the notion that the Hypersonic Threat is here to stay.
This threat is from new categories of missiles that combine hypersonic speed (Mach 5+) with the ability to manoeuvre, rather than having to follow a predictable ballistic trajectory such as traditional ballistic missiles.

They come in three categories of systems that are each quite different in terms of altitude, speed, range and flight trajectory:

1. Hypersonic cruise missiles (examples: Zircon, Brahmos…)
2. Boost-glide vehicles (examples: Avangard, DF 21…)
3. Hybrid missiles (examples: Iskander, Khinzal…)

Hypersonic missiles can deliver conventional or nuclear warheads in long-range strikes against very-high-value military targets, such as headquarters, airfields or aircraft carriers; or indeed as a weapon of terror against civilian population centers.

They pose many new challenges:

•The threat’s hypersonic speed inherently means less time available to detect, identify, track and engage.
•Interception, launch and impact-point prediction is much more difficult because of the threat’s unpredictable flight trajectory. This also means that it is now mandatory for defensive weapon systems and associated sensors to provide 360-degree coverage. Persistent surveillance capability is required in order not to lose track once the threat starts to manoeuvre.
•Any counter action must be multi-national and multi-domain because of the vast distances covered.
•Neither today’s exo-atmospheric interceptors, nor terminal-phase endo-atmospheric ones, are suitable for intercepts during the glide phase, because hypersonic missiles typically cruise at stratospheric altitudes (30-60km). Terminal intercept is possible, but only allows the protection of a relatively small footprint of territory, and the numbers of such interceptors that are available are far from sufficient to protect all potential targets.

Hypersonic Threat Defence solutions of today, tomorrow and beyond, always comprise several Building Blocks to cover each stage of the defensive chain, from Early Warning to Interception and Damage Assessment.

As a global industry leader of combat-proven, multi-domain, air and missile defence systems, Thales is uniquely positioned to advise, research, develop and deliver what is needed to defeat this threat.

Thales contributes to each building block of Hypersonic Threat Defence. Our next article will focus on the topic of Early Warning. Following issues will look at the other stages in the process.