Hypersonics are as much about advancements in technology as about the military might of nations. Race is on among nations to develop hypersonic missiles that can hit targets thousands of miles away in seconds

by Shelley Singh

In the coming decade, what we know as speed and distance is expected to change entirely. Hypersonic technology may see people travelling from Delhi to New York faster than it takes to cover a 50 km road trip around Delhi NCR today. The progress in hypersonic technology, letting systems travel beyond five times the speed of sound (1,235 km per hour), will also usher in new types of weapons with the capability to strike targets almost anywhere in the world within minutes.

Military use will precede travel or other such safe applications as getting hypersonic vehicles to transport humans is currently too complex. If the technology falls into the wrong hands, it would be akin to unleashing Darth Vader on steroids on the world, with the power to hold millions of people as hostage.

For, hypersonics are as much about advancements in technology as about the military might of nations. The United States leads research and development in this field, closely followed by China & Russia. Australia, Japan and the European Union also have civilian and military hypersonic research projects.

India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation has also started work on hypersonics to develop missiles that can travel five times the speed of sound or a little over a mile every second.

The hypersonic missiles being tested in the West are 5-10-ft-long, weigh about 250 kg and are encased in ceramic coating, carbon fibre composites or nickel-chromium super alloys.

Working as hyper-fast power drills, these missiles can smash or penetrate any target almost undetected by present-day radar systems. The distance between launch and hit could be covered in minutes. The speed of sound is called Mach 1. An object travelling faster than Mach 1 is called supersonic and beyond Mach 5 is hypersonic territory. The US plans to develop systems with speeds of Mach 15 to Mach 20.

Mach 20 missiles will move at 4 miles per second and Mach 25 at 5 miles per second — making it difficult for anyone to detect such weapons, let alone stop them.

Though much of the development in hypersonics will depend on improvements in material technologies, stuff that can withstand 30 times the speed of a civilian aircraft, enormous heat, friction and stress. Even the test periods do not last long — just 15 seconds.

But over the next few years, countries will show off hypersonic capabilities as a deterrent against aggression. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing are among those developing hypersonic weapons while, in about a decade, Elon Musk’s SpaceX aims to carry passengers from New York to Shanghai in under 40 minutes, ushering in the era of super-fast travel.