Weapon against hypersonic missiles being developed in Russia - newspaper
MOSCOW. April 23 (Interfax) - The development of an electronic warfare system, which will be jamming hypersonic vehicles, has begun in Russia, the newspaper Izvestia said on Thursday with the reference to sources from the defense sector.
"A new electronic warfare system is already being developed. It will be deterring strikes and jamming every type of existent and prospective hypersonic vehicles. The system will protect important military and civilian sites, such as command posts, launchers of the strategic nuclear forces, plants, airfields, and transport hubs," Izvestia said.
It will also be able to suppress targeting devices of hypersonic vehicles at the final stage of their flight trajectory, which will prevent munitions with optical-electronic, radar and satellite homing warheads from delivering precision strikes, the newspaper said.
"According to experts, the system is expected to prevent hypersonic vehicles from hitting the target even if they manage to penetrate air and missile defense lines," it said.
The ongoing development of hypersonic weapons has been announced by the United States and China in addition to Russia. The United States said it was prioritizing such projects. Nine prototypes of conventional warheads are undergoing trials. The U.S. Air Force is planning to arm B-52 strategic bombers with hypersonic cruise missiles, and the Navy will deploy such munitions on its destroyers, cruisers, and submarines. Plans to develop road-mobile intermediate- and shorter-range systems of the kind have also been reported.
"The trials of four samples are scheduled for this year. On March 20, 2020, the Pentagon reported successful test-launches of the glider vehicle for missiles of the Navy and the Air Force," Izvestia said.