PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Hypersonic wind tunnel puts China years ahead in missile race
Old 23rd Aug 2021, 22:27
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MechEngr
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: USA
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I believe that hypersonic missiles over long distances are slower than exo-atmospheric/ballistic missiles and have the deficiency that they produce very large heat signatures, readily detected from space by satellites - likely the same ones that currently can detect ballistic missile launches.

Sure, it's impressive to make a vehicle that can operate under those conditions, but it isn't useful to do so when existing better solutions already exist.

"Jiang said that a hypersonic aircraft could easily reach anywhere in the world within two hours." That's at least twice as long as a ballistic missile takes.
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