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Advances in High Speed Cruise MissilesTechnological Marvels are the Deadliest Anti-Ship Weapons
Jun 25, 2010 © Harry P. Schlanger
Cruise missiles strive for incredible hypersonic speeds and low altitude stealth delivery to pierce the defences of target ships.
A cruise missile is basically a small, pilotless guided airplane that can carry an explosive warhead.
Today, missiles can fly at least to the enormous 2.5 times the speed of sound (3,000 km/h or greater). The
higher the speed, the less time a target ship has to detect the oncoming missile, and the less time to
react to this threat.
Cruise Missile Types
Cruise missiles come in a number of variations and can be launched from submarines, destroyers or aircraft.
Missiles may be designed for travel in different modes, either:
- Beneath the water level,
- At low altitudes just above the water, or
- At high altitudes, i.e. airborne.
Mode of travel affects missile speed. The above list is ordered according to increasing speed, with
airborne missiles having the greatest speed. Additionally, an important aspect of missile performance is
its range (how far it will travel), altitude height at which it can hit a target, and effectiveness of the
guided system.
Mach Number
Missile speed is expressed in terms of Mach number, credited to the Austrian physicist and philosopher,
Ernst Mach (1838 - 1916).
It is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of the speed of an object moving through a
fluid (such as the air), divided by the speed of sound:
Mach: Mach = v/v0,
where v is the speed of the object, v0 is the speed of sound. Based on a standard atmospheric model, v0
has been defined to be 1,225 km/h or 761.2 mph. For example, an object travelling at twice the speed of
sound has a Mach number of 2.0. Flight can be roughly classified according to four categories depending
on a Mach number range:
- Subsonic, Mach < 1
- Transonic, .8 < Mach < 1.2
- Supersonic, 1.2 < Mach < 5
- Hypersonic, Mach > 5
There is also Sonic speed referring to the speed of sound itself, which has a reference Mach of 1.0.
Deadliest Missile Programs
The website
Missilethreat.com
provides a list of 14 nations currently developing cruise missiles, and
details known missile characteristics.
Wikipedia
has comprehensive information according to categories of
missile programs. Examples are ranked by speed, which may correlate with relative age of their technology.
The first hypersonic missile expected to be ready by 2012-3 is the Russian BrahMos 2 with the incredible
Mach 8.0. It is jointly developed by Russia and India. More recently, the United States are developing
the Boeing X-51 with a Mach 6.0.
A number of supersonic range missiles are already operational, notably from Russia and China. The Russian
"Sunburn" missile is among the better known due to its Mach 2.5, nuclear warhead carrying capacity, and
exported to other countries such as China and Iran. The US has its RATTLRS system (Mach 4) currently under
development.
Next, in the subsonic range, are a variety of missiles developed by different countries including the
United States.
The Sunburn Missile
The Russian supersonic SS-N-22 Moskit cruise missile, NATO code-named "Sunburn", has been called "the
most lethal anti-ship missile in the world", and has the following features:
- Mach is 2.5, it thus travels at 3,000 km/h
- Can be armed with a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead
- Flies barely 2m above the water level
- Has a range of 120 km but can be 250 km if air-launched
- The Sunburn has never yet been used in a war theatre
In conclusion, the effectiveness of cruise missiles depends on speed, range and accuracy of the guided
system. Today, missile technology has advanced to produce cruise missiles with Mach numbers within the
supersonic range (3,000 km/h or greater) but new developments are testing missiles in the awesome
hypersonic range.
The copyright of the article Advances in High Speed Cruise Missiles: Technological Marvels are the Deadliest Anti-Ship Weapons is owned by Harry P. Schlanger. Permission to republish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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