A hypersonic missile is among the high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to introduce to cope with what he called deepening U.S. hostility.
North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for its new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile, state media reported Wednesday, claiming progress in efforts to develop a more powerful, agile missile designed to strike faraway U.S. targets in the region.
A hypersonic missile is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening U.S. hostility. Outside experts say Kim wants a modernized weapons arsenal to wrest U.S. concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumes.
On Tuesday, Kim guided the ground jet test of the multi-stage solid-fuel engine for the hypersonic missile at the North’s northwestern rocket launch facility, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Hypersonics are a bit of a meme-ey thing anyway. They’re helpful if you want to penetrate the missile defense of a mobile target like a fleet or something. But if your goal is hitting a stationary land target, then ICBMs, the likes of which we’ve had for half a century now, are still the best way.
Why go hypersonic through the atmosphere when you can just fly up into space, go around, and then come down at re-entry speeds, which are naturally hypersonic? This way, instead of staying low where you can be intercepted all through your travel, you fly higher than most interceptors can reach for most of your flight path.
IBCMs can be easily launched in saturation attacks, where say, a missile defense can stop around 50 maybe, so you just launch 80. MAD is still the only thing that truly prevents their usage.
I can see why China and Russia wanted hypersonics, as a counter to US Carriers. But what, is N Korea going to take one on?