So - with all due respect to our Russian aerospace colleagues - they are going to field a missile with a viable, operational scramjet?
When the brightest minds elsewhere are still struggling to get a scramjet lit for any sustained period in flight (the lighting a match in a hurricane analogy)?
(Unless I'm wrong, the X-43B still holds the current hypersonic record with only several minutes scramjet powered flight at 95,000 feet).
Not only that, according to Wikipedia, this new missile is apparently entirely covered by a stealth coating during flight. That must be some incredible material, able to withstand very high heat, yet still absorb radar waves - much more-so than something like the SR-71s ferrite paint?
Perhaps even more-so than the ablative coatings on the X-15, given that this missile will presumably fly at much lower and therefore denser altitudes.
But wait a minute - what's the point of a stealth coating on an object travelling so fast and generating so much heat that it will glow like a searchlight to any infra-red sensor of any sensitivity?
If I am correct, at lower altitudes a hypersonic object would be shrouded by plasma, making telemetry very difficult, yet the Wikipedia entry boasts of telemetry exchange in flight.
It may be fast, but hypersonic?
That's at least mile a second friends.
Am I right in being a little sceptical comrades?
AFAIK the Brahmos is still the world's fastest missile... at a comparatively snail like Mach 2.8 - may be 3.0 if all conditions are right.