Hypersonics

Russian Weapon Reaches Mach 27

Russia’s first two Avangard hypersonic weapon systems are now operational. First announced by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in March 2018, the Avangard is a hypersonic weapon developed to bypass ballistic missile defenses. The hypersonic weapon can reach absurd speeds up to Mach 27 and is the latest in a series of superfast weapons developed by Russia, China, and the United States.

The hypersonic weapon utilizes boost glide trajectories in order to reach such high speeds. This means that the Avangard uses an ICBM booster to reach an altitude of approximately 62 miles above the ground, about a third of low-Earth orbit. Once the weapon reaches altitude, it will begin to take aim at its target and fly down towards it, reaching speeds of Mach 27, about 9.2 kilometers a second. The boost glide weapon is different from typical intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), since ICBMs fly their warheads high above their targets, into low Earth orbit, and there the warhead will simply disconnect from the booster rockets and fall towards earth.

The advantage that Avangard has is that it never actually reaches low Earth orbit. American ballistic missile defenses are designed to shoot down incoming ICBMs in space, so a relatively low flying Avangard would be way below the missile defense’s engagement range.