Page 50 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2019
P. 50

PACIFIC
HYPERSONICS
“We [Australia] have fallen
behind in hypersonics despite being a world leader in the past.”
reportedlycollaboratingwithRussia,and Japan plans to conduct hypersonic weapons tests between 2023 and 2025. Australia is contributing to US hyper- sonics programs, providing expertise and globally competitive guidance and control systems.
In recent years, however, China has taken the lead. Beijing has reportedly conducted 20 times as many hypersonic flights as the US and is investing heavily in hypersonic testing facilities. Chinese re- searchers presented more papers at a 2017 American hypersonics conference than all of the other countries put together.
In August last year, China tested a hy- personic ‘waverider’ – an aircraft capable of riding its own shockwaves – called the ‘Starry Sky 2’. It was first carried into space by a conventional rocket before separating and conducting turns, maintaining veloci- ties above Mach 5.5 for more than six min- utes and reaching Mach 6 under its own power. To top it off, the aircraft landed in- tact in a designated target zone. If reports of the test are accurate, it places China at the front of the hypersonics race.
“China and Russia are leading the way in this,” Yelland said. “In some ways the Western world has been caught a little off-guard. But the West has the ability to accelerate.”
Australia has a strong history of hypersonics with Woomera the site of substantial testing in years gone by.
A senior RAN source at a recent public event confirmed that the West, including Australia, has fallen behind China and Rus- sia in developing and testing hypersonics.
“We [Australia] have fallen behind in hypersonics despite being a world leader in the past,” the source said. “We are ac- tively investing in this space to get back on track."
“We’re working closely with the US, and we’ve got some world-leading guidance and control technologies here at BAE Systems Australia,” Yelland said to ADM. “We’ve shown this on previous weapon program collaborations with the US such Nulka and ESSM. We’ve certainly got the ability to contribute.”
Can hypersonic missiles be stopped?
So, will hypersonic missiles re- ally push warships out of the
Indo-Pacific? They are certainly difficult to defend against, combining immense speed with an ability to fly and manoeuvre at altitudes that are problematic for exist- ing missile defence systems.
“If you launch a Mach 9 missile from 100 kilometres away, it will take 33 sec- onds to travel that distance,” Professor Andrew Davies said to ADM. “During that time a target travelling at 20 knots will move 340 metres. A Nimitz-class car- rier is 317 metres long.”
Let’s try and put that in perspective: in the time it takes the average adult to read this sentence, a hypersonic missile moving at Mach 9 could travel roughly 31 kilome- tres (the distance between the Sydney CBD
and Palm Beach, or Parliament House to Lake George). A ship moving at 20 knots could only travel the length of a rugby field.
“By the time you realize a hypersonic missile is coming your way, you’ve got less than 10 seconds to react,” Yelland said. “And if you hit anywhere on a warship with a hypersonic missile, you’ll sink that ship.”
The altitudes at which hypersonic missiles travel means existing missile defences are unlikely to offer much help. Once separated from the rocket, boost glide missiles could travel laterally across atmospheric layers before dropping towards a target. Scramjet missiles could also fly at altitudes below the typical operating range of Aegis or THAAD and above that of Patriot batteries.
On the surface, hypersonics may seem to spell the end of large warships. No de- fensive system currently exists that can counter manoeuvrable missiles moving
50 | October 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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