Because Russian hypersonic weapons completely change the strategic balance at sea
The presentation of Russian hypersonic weapons has profoundly changed the military balance on the sea even if very few analysts have had the courage to highlight its impact. After all, billions, if not tens of billions, of investment dollars are at stake and every change has enormous economic impacts.
In 2018, Vladimir Putin took to the stage to present Russia's new hypersonic weapons. The term "hypersonic" refers to missiles flying at speeds of Mach 5 and above. At the time, many in the West dismissed Putin's claims and thought he was a bluff. Now we know he wasn't bluffing. Russia is the only country in the world that has ready-to-deploy hypersonic missiles, not one but three types: Zircon, Kinzhal and Avantguard.
Zircon hypersonic missile
Why do these weapons radically change warfare? In World War I, tanks were the game-changing military technology; since World War II, it has been aviation. Carrier strike groups have been an irresistible force wherever they have traveled, dominating the seas ever since. Hypersonic precision missiles made this force obsolete overnight.
The main military front in the current global conflict consists of the anti-ballistic batteries (ABMs) that the United States has installed on the Poland-Romania axis and the Russians on the North Pole-Kaliningrad-Crimea-Syria axis. These are defensive systems, designed to intercept incoming nuclear missiles. However, current ABM systems are only effective against missiles flying at speeds up to mach 3.5 (3.5 times the speed of sound).
The Kinzhal turns powerful carrier strike groups into easy targets.
The new Russian Kinzhal missile flies at speeds between mach 12 and mach 15 and nothing in western defensive arsenals can stop its attack. Weapons effective against the Kinzhal are only being studied, but far from being made. During the war in Ukraine, Russia gave an amazing demonstration of its power. The first Kinzhal strike, carried out a month after hostilities began in Ukraine, was perhaps the most significant: Russian forces targeted a large weapons depot in Ukraine that was built to withstand a nuclear attack. It was buried 170 meters deep and protected by several layers of reinforced concrete.
The Kinzhal flies at altitudes between 20 and 40 km, with a maximum range of 2,000 km. When over the target, it dives perpendicularly and accelerates to Mach 15, gathering tremendous kinetic energy in addition to its explosive payload. The first strike with a single Kinzhal missile destroyed Ukraine's bomb-proof underground weapons cache.
The Kinzhal was developed with the express purpose of destroying aircraft carrier strike groups. If he's managed to destroy a warehouse built to withstand a nuclear attack, he can cut through an aircraft carrier like a hot knife through butter.
Neither Western powers nor China are remotely capable of having such weapons. The problem for these weapons is the heat generated by friction, which can lead to the destruction of the missile in flight. Russia is the only nation to have developed special materials that allow missiles to withstand this stress, so their flight can be controlled throughout their trajectory and delivered with pinpoint accuracy.
According to estimates by Western intelligence services, Russia had about 50 Kinzhals at the start of the war in Ukraine, but has so far used only 9. Last week it launched six. Last week he fired six Kinzhals in a single salvo. This too was a message. Here's how Domazet explains it: The United States has 11 carrier strike groups. Of these, less than half will be active at any time (while others are docked for maintenance or in preparation). Firing six Kinzhals in one go is a military idiom to say, “We have the capability to sink ALL of your aircraft carriers at once .” At this point the US has to completely rethink its strategy or they can ignore it, more or less as they are doing now. Until the first aircraft carrier sinks…
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The article Why Russian hypersonic weapons completely change the strategic balance at sea comes from Scenari Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/perche-le-armi-ipersoniche-russe-cambiano-completamente-gli-equilibri-strategici-in-mare/ on Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:00:17 +0000.