New hypersonic missile to be 'uninerceptable'

A round only needs to get a piece of that missile. With air-to-air missiles such as AMRAAM and the Phoenix there is a part of the missile called TDD (Target Detection Device) witch is a proximity fuse. The Anti-missile only needs to be close. It then blows up. On rare occasions, if you get lucky you may hit the object directly. But that is rare.

Motorola for a time manufactured small proximity fuses for small arms. About the size of what the Phalanx shoots. So these rounds would blow up if it detected a near by object. A supersonic object if it gets any perturbation on the surface the skin it will peal the skin off in a very dramatic fashion.

At the same time we are developing laser weapons that can take out mortar rounds. I think they might be using them in Israel now. In four years when this thing is in inventory it will probably be obsolete.

Oh yeah, the profile of this thing has got big radar signature all over it. From the air intake and speed. So they might get one off but the ship that it came from will be gone in short order. The effective area around one aircraft carrier is probably on the order of 1500 miles.

Of course my supposition is that we will still be funding R&D and have a military. If the Obama gets in all bets are off.

I kind of get from you this is some great Doomsday weapon. I just don't see it as that big of a threat. If they had true (greater than Mach 7) scram-jet technology. I think I would be concerned.

This is slightly faster than an AMRAAM and I think an AMRAAM could be upgraded for this thing.

I do not believe that S30mki is claiming that it is a doomsday weapon, and in my posts I did mention that there is no such thing as a missile that cannot be intercepted - within certain parameters. The main problem with this missile for a defender is that it will be coming in very low (you say that it has a big radar signature ...actually it does not ...I am talking about the operational Brahmos 1, and that is compounded by it flying at a very low altitude that further compromises detection). That does not mean it cannot be detected, it simply means that the detection time is cut down. Add to that the high speed factor, and that makes detection to be quite literally measured in less than a minute. That is not a lot of time, and no errors can be made, which is why all modern kill systems are fully automatic. The main issue with a fast missile is that at that speed even a successful intercept will still have a lot of debris heading for the ship. The missile doesn't just disappear when hit. Those are the main issues with supersonic anti-ship missiles ...the fact that detection time is very small, and that even a successful intercept may still leave enough of the debris moving forward at some mach multiple that will damage the soft parts of the ship (the picture I posted showed what an actual hit would do ....by the way a major component of that damage is not from the warhead, which is not that big, but rather due to the sheer kinetic mass dumped on the ship).

The weapons are not wonder weapons by any means, and they are not invincible. However they do have some strengths, and those are the main reasons why many modern point-defence systems are moving away from Phalanx and Goalkeeper gun-based systems into short-range anti-missile missile defense systems. A Phalanx style gun system will either not be able to intercept the missile, and even if some rounds manage to impact the missile will be too close, and too fast, that there will still be damage done. Also consider what would happen if the Phalanx system is facing 3 or 4 missiles closing at mach 3?

Anyways, it may not be a wonder-weapon, but it has its benefits within certain parameters. Furthermore, if certain nations were to get similar weapons in a narrow sea-lane, they could easily cause a lot of damage. It only needs one to get through for an average sized ship to get enough damage to either get an outright kill, or at least a mission kill. For instance, that Israeli navy Corvette that was damaged by an anti-ship missile (allegedly Chinese made, via Iran). That was a sub-sonic missile, which only managed to get through since the Israeli ship's defenses were turned off. If that missile had been (even one of the older) super-sonic missiles, the kinetic impact would have been too much for a corvette. Furthermore, if several had been launched, even the defense systems turned on wouldn't have been enough to protect a solitary ship that close. A United States Carrier Group has many layers of defenses, but there are a lot of American allies that do not have, or cannot have, such comprehensive defensive layers. If a country like Iran was to get sufficient numbers of super-sonic missiles (say 15), or a group like Hezbo'llah was to receive say 4 from a proxy (let's say the older Sunburn versions, and China has been developing their own versions of supersonic missiles), then the only Navies that could be more or less protected would be the USN, the French, the Japanese, and the Brits. Most other navies wouldn't be able to protect their solitary ships from a salvo of just 2 to 3 such missiles in certain tight areas.

There are quite a number of sea-lane loci that would be very vulnerable to such a weapon ....and I am not even talking of the Brahmos or the upcoming Brahmos II. Even a super-sonic missile a generation old would leave certain areas only accessible to a truly superb navy like the USN.

Anyways, it is not perfect, and it is not invincible. However, just know if the Israeli ship had been struck by one of those, it would not have limped back home.

“A Phalanx style gun system will either not be able to intercept the missile, and even if some rounds manage to impact the missile will be too close, and too fast, that there will still be damage done. Also consider what would happen if the Phalanx system is facing 3 or 4 missiles closing at mach 3?”

You are missing the point for about the third time. The “missile” will intercept the debris. The Russians have a version of the Phalynx it just puts up a wall of debris.
Doesn't even use radar. Pretty effective.

Since we know that these are a threat we tend to track platforms that launch these kinds of weapons. They will be on large ships.

Second, we typically have more than one Phalanx system per ship.

Third, after you get the kill on the first one the next three or four have to fly through that debris. At mach 5 lots of luck.

The speed of the missile and that rather large opening in the front (cavity) gives it a rather nice radar signature.
I didn't see any stealthy design about that missile. None!

BTW, Do you know what a proximity fuse is? It makes it possible so you do not need a direct hit. Again, you only need a debris field in front of a missile. The missile will fly into it. But I repeat myself.

Again, when the some of our laser tech gets more improved.
This weapon will be like a musket. You should do some research on that. It's out there. We have servos and radar that can track mach 5+ which means we can hit it.

Oh yeah EMP. That is also in inventory. Try and out run that.

Oh yeah, It probably uses the Russian GPS. We can jam that too.

I will agree all ships vulnerable. Look at the USS Cole. No high tech there.

First one is always easy. The second one gets a little tougher.

I hope you aren't losing sleep over this.

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