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Re:US hypersonic missile fails in test- 2nd consecutive fail... by jandrewrogers on Friday July 01, 2022 @03:47PM (#31951771)
Quartz isn't durable enough for hypersonic IR windows in dense atmosphere. When tested decades ago, actively-cooled sapphire, diamond, and even more durable exotics ablated too quickly for that purpose. I don't know what they are using today but the inability to find an IR transparent material that could survive long enough was a central design problem. This can be seen in the odd compromises made to the seeker design of e.g. THAAD, which doesn't spend much time in the lower atmosphere.

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