BBC News – UK to deploy Royal Navy ships to support Israel https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67095846

“ A Russian pilot tried to shoot down an RAF surveillance plane after believing he had permission to fire, the BBC has learned. The pilot fired two missiles, the first of which missed rather than malfunctioned as claimed at the time. Russia had claimed the incident last September was caused by a “technical malfunction”. The […]

BBC: Rogue Russian pilot tried to shoot down RAF aircraft in 2022

The war between Russian and Ukraine features hi-tech weaponry such as missiles, aircraft, tanks and drones but for many front line infantrymen, iconditions are similar to those of the the First World War

Click on the link below for an article from the London Sunday Times about front line conditions in the war between Ukraine and Russia.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/life-in-the-trenches-waves-of-russians-go-over-the-top-theyre-just-cannon-fodder-n2fcf88hq

It quotes Metar, a 54 year old Ukrainian videographer who is now a drone operator, as saying that ‘It’s just like the First World War.’ Metar and his comrades are in trenches that are sometimes only 150m from the Russians. They attack in waves across muddy ground after a preliminary artillery bombardment, trying to get close enough to throw grenades into the Ukrainian trenches.

They are poorly equipped and the worst trained are sent in first, apparently to reveal the Ukrainian positions and to use up Ukrainian ammunition. Wounded Russians are abandoned in No Man’s Land.

Unlike a First World War soldier, Metar has a bird’s eye view of the Russian attacks thanks to the drones

The Ukrainians suffered from frost bite in the early days of the fight, but have now learnt to avoid it by keeping moving. They do two days in the trenches and then two days off.

Many of the Russians come from the Wagner Group, a force of 50,000 men, 40,000 of them convicts from Russian prisons. It was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire who is close to President Vladimir Putin

DEFENCE IQ

https://www.defenceiq.com/defence-technology/articles/hypersonic-missiles-what-are-they-and-can-they-be-stopped

Dr James Bosbotinis, a UK-based specialist in defence and international affairs, has provided some technical and political insights into hypersonics, and the implications for future defence alliances.

What is a Hypersonic Missile?

A hypersonic missile travels at speeds of Mach 5 and higher – five times faster than the speed of sound (3836 mph), which is around 1 mile per second. Some missiles, such as Russia’s Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, are allegedly capable of reaching Mach 10 speeds (7672 mph) and distances up to 1200 miles.

RELATED: Lockheed Martin hints at hypersonic aircraft and 6th-gen capabilities

In comparison, the US Tomahawk cruise missile – the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy’s go-to long range missile-system – is subsonic, travelling around 550 mph and travelling a maximum distance around 1500 miles.

Hypersonic missiles come in two variants:

• Hypersonic cruise missiles
  
  This type of missile reaches its target with the help of a high-speed jet engine that allows it to travel at extreme speeds, in excess of Mach-5. It is non-ballistic – the opposite of traditional Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) which utilises gravitational forces to reach its target.
  
• Hypersonic glide vehicles
  
  This type of hypersonic missile utilises re-entry vehicles. Initially, the missile is launched into space on an arching trajectory, where the warheads are released and fall towards the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. Rather than leaving the payload at the mercy of gravitational forces – as is the case for traditional ICBMs – the warheads are attached to a glide vehicle which re-enters the atmosphere, and through its aerodynamic shape it can ride the shockwaves generated by its own lift as it breaches the speed of sound, giving it enough speed to overcome existing missile defence systems. The glide vehicle surfs on the atmosphere between 40-100km in altitude and reaches its destination by leveraging aerodynamic forces.

“Hypersonic missiles offer a number of advantages over subsonic and supersonic weapons, particularly with regard to the prosecution of time-critical targets (for example, mobile ballistic missile launchers), where the additional speed of a hypersonic weapon is valuable,” Bosbotinis argues.

“It can also overcome the defences of heavily-defended targets (such as an aircraft carrier).

“The development and deployment of hypersonic weapon systems will provide states with significantly enhanced strike capabilities and potentially, the means to coerce. This will be the case where a major regional power, such as Russia, may seek to coerce a neighbour, leveraging the threat of hypersonic strikes against critical targets. As such, the proliferation of hypersonic capabilities to regional states could also be destabilising, upsetting local balances of power. However, it could also strengthen deterrence”.

“In this regard, consider the implications of Iran deploying hypersonic weapons versus an Israeli deployment. Hypersonic weapons may also be problematic in terms of escalation control in the context of a NATO-Russia or US-China confrontation. This concerns dual-capable systems, that is, systems with both conventional and nuclear capabilities, for example, the Kinzhal.”

Bosbotinis also explains that dual-capable systems raise the issue of discrimination: how does one know if the incoming threat is conventional or nuclear? In the context of hypersonic threats, this is compounded by the reduced time available to decision-makers to respond to an incoming threat.

Moreover, the development of submarine-launched hypersonic missiles would raise the potential threat – real or perceived – of attempted decapitation strikes, utilising the combination of the inherent stealth of a nuclear-powered submarine and the speed of a hypersonic missile.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/04/politics/us-hypersonic-missile-test/index.html

The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia as President Joe Biden was about to travel to Europe, according to a defense official familiar with the matter.

The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast, the official said, in the first successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the system. A booster engine accelerated the missile to high speed, at which point the air-breathing scramjet engine ignited and propelled the missile at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above.

https://news.yahoo.com/us-uk-and-australia-to-develop-hypersonic-missiles-185327718.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

US, UK and Australia to develop hypersonic missiles

Niamh Cavanagh

·Producer

Tue, April 5, 2022, 7:53 PM·5 min read

On April 5, it was revealed that President Joe Biden is preparing to announce that the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have created a security pact in response to China’s military expansion. The three nations are due to co-operate on the creation and development of hypersonic weapons in the so-called Aukus security pact, the Financial Times reported. One of the people familiar with the pact told the FT that an announcement could be made as early as Tuesday.

The push to co-develop the weapons is intended to counter the rise of China’s growing military presence. The Pentagon, the FT writes, has stepped up its efforts in developing hypersonic missiles after discovering how advanced China had become in evolving its weapons. The communist country has carried out several hundred hypersonic missile tests – a stark contrast to the U.S. which has only completed less than a dozen.

China is not the only U.S. adversary with access to the powerful new weapons. Russia’s military has claimed to have twice unleashed hypersonic missiles in its invasion of Ukraine, apparently destroying an arms depot in the process, during its monthlong onslaught.

The missile, designed to be launched from a MiG fighter jet, can fly at 10 times the speed of sound, and unlike other missiles can change course during its flight, making it impossible for air-defense systems to shoot it down. It can also be used to deliver nuclear weapons.

On March 19, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed it had struck an underground missile and ammunition warehouse in a village that borders Romania, and the following day, it had destroyed a fuel depot near the southern city of Mykolaiv.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said the attack used its newest Kinzhal, or “dagger,” hypersonic missile, in Ukraine.

https://www.ft.com/content/b8ddf153-b9ca-4db5-8835-cb8509a9921f

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britain-us-and-australia-to-develop-hypersonic-weapons-and-laser-defence-systems-pf38t0jqq

THE British Army must embrace the fact that its Challenger tanks are woefully out of date and lead the way in Nato with a transformative new land warfare strategy, a former Joint Forces Commander said last night. Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who retired in 2016, said that, while armour will continue to play a key […]

Axing Challenger will free British Army to re-think land warfare strategy, general says

Happy new year and thanks for reading, commenting on and liking my blog in 2015.

I will probably be posting a bit less in the next few months as I have signed a contract to write a book based on my PhD thesis on British Strategy and Oil 1914-1923, so will be prioritising that, but will keep the blog going.