Are Hypersonic Missiles invulnerable?

Are Hypersonic Missiles Impossible to Shoot down?

This is the Russian 3M22 Zircon. It has a ridiculous top speed of Mach 9 or 11000 km/h. That's almost 3 times faster than a SR-71 Blackbird.

But this insane speed doesn’t just make it hard to shoot down but also produces heat, like a lot of heat, in fact the air around the missile turns from a gas to plasma. So what you may ask? Well this plasma interferes with and absorbs EM waves like radar basically making it invisible

But it gets worse because a normal missile has a parabolic flight path like this, so if you can see its launch, you know roughly where it’s going to land and where to intercept it. Hypersonic Missiles purposefully fly like a kid on sugar, darting around in all directions, masking its target location. On top of this they also fly at low altitudes, making them even hard to see.

These Zircon missiles have been tested multiple times, may have been battle tested in Ukraine and can house a nuclear warhead.

There is no current technology that has a reasonable chance to get around all these tracking and speed issues. It’s thought that our best chances of shooting it down is by using 1 Megawatt laser that could be housed on the likes of the USS Gerald R Ford. But this technology is likely at least 5 years away.

[AnonOmis]

No technology that is known by the public*

[danielsgames]

It's more than possible to shoot down a hypersonic missile

[LegoThornProductions-jssr]

All we gotta do is play KSI's song on full volume 💀

[TactiRom]

There's something satisfying yet terrifying about your videos, I enjoy how on-point you stay with the topic. Tbh it would be interesting to learn more about you, as in, the content creator, to get more 'real' if that makes sense

Keep it up nonetheless

[hakunapotato]

Yes, plasma does absorb radio waves, which makes it invisible to radar. But do you know what that also means? It means missile too can’t “see” anything, either. Plasma blocks radio waves, so there’s no communication between the missile and its sender—no targeting updates, no active homing. It’s like flying blind. All it’s got to navigate with is inertial navigation system, and at those speeds, it will have a accuracy measured in kilometres

And let’s not forget the heat and infrared signature. The plasma puts out so much IR that even your grandma’s old thermometer could spot it in the sky. So, for the missile to actually hit anything remotely close to the target, it has to slow down in the terminal phase to around Mach 3-4, which is the phase and speed where interceptions usually happen anyway. Ukraine already intercepted the two Zircon missiles Russia threw at them and even showed the world photographic proof.

Trust me dude, there are no “wonder weapons” on the battlefield anymore. It all comes down to how much cash and resources a country’s willing to burn.

[BigBurger-somethingsomething]

It would be hard but probably not impossible to shoot one down

[acs]

The term Hypersonic implies only speed. Cruise missiles with Mach 5+ ability are something different and are referred to in this video as the unstoppable missile. A missile with a parabolic arch that travels Mach 5+ is still considered a Hypersonic missile. Ram or Scram engine missiles are what are known as the “Hypercruise” weapons systems that can freely maneuver while maintaining these high speeds. However modern counter battery systems are also considered as Hypersonic.

[KitNoxious]

I mean, sure, but if Russia use that on US assets…to quote HabitualLineCrosser: “you’ll have half my airforce coming at you with the combined radar cross section of a dinner plate.”

[titanium_viper]

Lasers: "You think you're fast kid? How about I show you some REAL speed."

[FIRE_BOMB]

That plasma also interferes with the missile’s targeting system

[tiagon]

Speed really isnt all that useful when you cant change course, its just a really easy to shoot down artillery shell at that point

[PeatBogBoggle]

"we are not developing a weapon to shoot this down.... Because we have already developed it"

[HarbingerOfManagedDemocracyy]

We have shot satellites falling from the sky using missiles, im sure we can do the same for a missile.

[randomname]

If it could even get out of its launch bay with out causing a fire

[auscole]

What's crazy is that the US has probably already reacted to these threats along with drones pretty much. It just goes to show how scary and awesome unprecedented funding in the military helps. All we know is there is lasers going into service but I don't doubt they have already have a response to these missiles already and just haven't told the public yet.

[ianholder-dwyt]

Patriot missile system: "let me introduce myself"

[johnskovran]

Funny. It is really hot so you can"t see it on radar. In infrared it is brighter than the sun?

[wongyusung]

can you do shorts about guns of South Korean military? Love your contents and thank you.

[mihirabhyankar]

If hot why not use Heat seeking missiles to intercept?

[redactedrider]

Hate to tell you this but those lasers have been around and installed on a select number of ships for years. They look like big spot lights.