Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
I find the juxtaposition of "hypersonic" and "glide" in the same descriptive a bit jarring. The only thing I can think of that "glides" at hypersonic velocity is a meteor coming down to earth - and that's not so much a glide as a plummet.
A meteor follows a ballistic trajectory. So yes it plummets. These new weapons "glide" in that they are not powered during the descent and terminal phases of flight, but
are controlled and have not just control surfaces, but also lifting surfaces (think space shuttle as an example). They do not follow a ballistic trajectory and can manuever both to complicate defenses and to steer them to their targets. The Pershing II missile had a gliding and maneuvering hypersonic reentry vehicle, but carried a nuclear warhead. The difference is that these things have a conventional warhead and much more precision terminal guidance. (Pershing II had a CEP of about 30 meters, plenty good enough for a nuke warhead, but effectively useless for a conventional warhead.)