U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test

Re:U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic we... by michael1999 on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @02:40PM (#31414780)

Many anti-air missiles detonate at range and destroy with shrapnel. And shrapnel damage is just kinetic. But that's probably not what you mean.

Yes. For lightly armoured targets, their own velocity might do it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Pebbles#Brilliant_Pe...

And if you want to go further, de-orbiting tungsten rods make the explosives redundant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

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Re:U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic we... by robonerd on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @03:21PM (#31415225)

> de-orbiting tungsten rods

Over-hyped I think. Sure the kinetic energy is incredible, but what of the terminal ballistics? I think these would have substantial over-penetration against anything except deep bunkers; most of that kinetic energy would be spent driving that rod through bedrock, like an APFSDS dart shot into tank armor. Good for punching holes in things.

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Re:U.S. Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic we... by michael1999 on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @03:32PM (#31415349)

Completely agree. Those systems solve a bunch of non-problems and completely destabilize MAD. There's a reason they were never developed.

But I wouldn't discount to the ability of weapons designers to figure out the frangibility and deliver the bulk of the energy to a tuneable depth.

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