Pięć dni temu, 19.06.2019, na stronie internetowej “New York Times Magazine” {TUTAJ} ukazał się artykuł R. Jeffrey’a Smitha “Hypersonic Missiles Are Unstoppable. And They’re Starting a New Global Arms Race.”. Autor opisał w niej amerykańskie badania nad nową generacją broni – superszybkich pocisków osiągających prędkość 15-20 razy większą od dźwięku. Są one dzięki niej niewykrywalne dla radarów i mogą niszczyć bez trudu broń [także nuklearną] nieprzyjaciela. Artykuł Smitha jest zbyt obszerny, by móc go streścić. Zacytuję wiec tylko kilka fragmentów:
“Griffin was referring to a revolutionary new type of weapon, one that would have the unprecedented ability to maneuver and then to strike almost any target in the world within a matter of minutes. Capable of traveling at more than 15 times the speed of sound, hypersonic missiles arrive at their targets in a blinding, destructive flash, before any sonic booms or other meaningful warning. So far, there are no surefire defenses. Fast, effective, precise and unstoppable — these are rare but highly desired characteristics on the modern battlefield. And the missiles are being developed not only by the United States but also by China, Russia and other countries. (…)
In 2018, Congress expressed its consensus in a law requiring that an American hypersonic weapon be operational by October 2022. This year, the Trump administration’s proposed defense budget included $2.6 billion for hypersonics, and national security industry experts project that the annual budget will reach $5 billion by the middle of the next decade. The immediate aim is to create two deployable systems within three years. Key funding is likely to be approved this summer. (…) Several months later, he and Griffin created a new Space Development Agency of some 225 people, tasked with putting a network of sensors in low-earth orbit that would track incoming hypersonic missiles and direct American hypersonic attacks. (…)
The missiles’ kinetic energy at the time of impact, at speeds of at least 1,150 miles per hour, makes them powerful enough to penetrate any building material or armored plating with the force of three to four tons of TNT.
They could be aimed, in theory, at Russian nuclear-armed ballistic missiles being carried on trucks or rails. Or the Chinese could use their own versions of these missiles to target American bombers and other aircraft at bases in Japan or Guam. Or the missiles could attack vital land- or sea-based radars anywhere, or military headquarters in Asian ports or near European cities. The weapons could even suddenly pierce the steel decks of one of America’s 11 multibillion-dollar aircraft carriers, instantly stopping flight operations, a vulnerability that might eventually render the floating behemoths obsolete. Hypersonic missiles are also ideal for waging a decapitation strike — assassinating a country’s top military or political officials. “Instant leader-killers,” a former Obama administration White House official, who asked not to be named, said in an interview.
Within the next decade, these new weapons could undertake a task long imagined for nuclear arms: a first strike against another nation’s government or arsenals, interrupting key chains of communication and disabling some of its retaliatory forces, all without the radioactive fallout and special condemnation that might accompany the detonation of nuclear warheads.”,
Jak na razie ta nowa broń jest wszędzie w fazie prototypów. W omawianym artykule opisane są m.in. laboratoria pracujące nad nimi. To jednak zmieni się w ciągu najbliższych kilku lat. W lutym 2019 napisałam notkę “Putin w poszukiwaniu nowej tajnej broni” {TUTAJ} w której opisałam, jak Putin przechwalał się swoją bronią hipersoniczną. Z tekstu Smitha dowiedzieliśmy się – co na to Amerykanie.
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