Not to be outdone, North Korea announced that they are ready to reveal their latest Ungcumunone missile capable of being launch with a very large slingshot. Top speed only depends on the size of the rubber band used.
"Unlike a typical ballistic missile warhead however, a hypersonic glide vehicle stops short of entering space and glides through the atmosphere at speeds of between 4,000 and 7,000 miles an hour.
A weapon traveling at such blistering speeds could hit any place on Earth in less than an hour."
The circumference of the Earth is 24.9K miles. Thus if a target is halfway around the world it is nearly 15K miles away. Yet this genius informs us that a missile traveling 4-7K could hit anywhere on Earth in less than an hour. Seems perhaps we should master 5th grade math before taking on theoretical physics.
except that the missile isn't going to fly along the surface of the earth, instead flying in a more direct ,albeit still curved path to its intended target
seems to me the claim that the missile can't make is is based on the idea that all missiles are fired from the same location. China is a big place and they do have war ships and this could be fired from them from multiple places on Earth. Any place on Earth in an hour is not a stretch by any means. The part they didn't tell you is about all the stuff we have that does way more than this.
@StevenG, yeah the article is poorly written. i think any conventional ballistic missile would take less than an hour to travel across Earth.
according to wiki, an ICBM would take less than 5 min in a boost phase, then it travels in a midcourse phase with an orbital speed of about 16,000 mph. at that speed, it would take less than an hour to travel across Earth. the final re-entry takes 2 min.
the "4,000 and 7,000 miles an hour" is the speed in atmosphere after the re-entry, which its purpose is to avoid getting shot down. so, it looks like it has a very little impact on the overall flight time.
One has to remember that the earths diamaer at the equator is 25,000 miles meaing 12,500 mies is the halfway point if you were to fire from the equator to a point on the equator max time at 7,000 miles per hour would be 1.8 hours to go 12,500 miles. One has to remember that China and most of the Western nations do not sit on the equator. If you look at the latitude of saint Louis and London, England at the equator to go from 0 degrees to 90 degrees is about 6,000 miles, however the distance from st. Louis to London since they don't sit on the equator is about 4000 miles --in the northern latitudes--the author is correct--flight time to anywhere at 7000 mph will be a less than an hour to an hour.
"dbc105 - "seems to me the claim that the missile can't make is is based on the idea that all missiles are fired from the same location. China is a big place and they do have war ships and this could be fired from them from multiple places on Earth"
If youre going to assume multiple launch locations including sea based launches then it seems to me that reaching any location on earth within an hour would be possible with simple conventional weapons.
China, You're wasting your resources on weapons. You should be far more concern about your disappearing coast line. Climate change will effect China horrifically. Maybe even worse than it's impact on the US.
There is a simple solution to this threat where America is falling behind in developing new weapon technologies like China and Russia. We are 5% of the worlds population but imprison 25% of the worlds prisoners so we simply incarcerate 90% of our population, ban schools since they are not producing anything worthwhile since we rank about 30 in math and science in the world. This would convince the world that we could not possibly be harmful to any nation except ourselves.
30 kw Lasers can stop the Zircon anti-ship missile and The rail gun can do what the Zircon can do only cheaper. We need to out technology them to win.The F35 with a 30kw laser is a good plane after all. The F 35b with the with the fan removed will fit
the 30 kw laser with a enough power to power it. Beat that Russia and China.
Space based lasers in orbit , powered by the sun. Weather control , micro drones
@weeds, so much bravado, as for your laser the Chinese can just coat their missiles with a reflective coating, as for your stealth drones/planes they can be picked up on VLF radars (older technology), whatever you make they will counter it and vice versa, what a waste of money who YOU and I all pay for, it costs the government NOTHING.
"China is particularly concerned about U.S. development of hypersonics as they could be used to target China's modest nuclear arsenal without the need for the U.S. to 'go nuclear.'"
Huh? We didn't do anything about Tienanmen Square, the stealing of our F-35 designs, the breaking into all our government networks... we've done nothing but be nice to them, and they fear we're going to attack them? No, it's because "everybody wants to rule the world." Even China, whose greatest military accomplishment was a retreat.
Me-'Did someone say intercept. Baker Act can't stop this!'
One Word LORD GOD
Me-'Can I get an interception LORD GOD?'
Casey\Persico\601 pgs\pg 390\1 st try
'VOOM!!!'
In 1976 , his longtime partner and protege, Carl Paffendorf, had given Casey a one percent interest in Pen Verter for a nominal $ 95 payment. (The Pen Verter was supposte to allow computers to read handwriting.).
On the stand in the Tax Court, the lawyer for the IRS suggested that Pen Verter was really 'in the business of selling tax deductions.'
Casey was incensed. 'I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE EXCEPTION TO ANY NOTION THAT I PURPASED A TAX DEDUCTION....TO SAY I PURCHASED A TAX DEDUCTION IS AN OUTRAGEOUS DISTORTION..' WHAT HE WAS DOING HE SAID, WAS INVESTING IN AMERICA'S FUTURE, THE KIND OF BOLD ENTREPRENEURSHIP THAT MADE THE UNITED STATES THE TECHNOLOGICAL 'WONDER OF THE WORLD'.HE COULD NOT, HOWEVER, RESIST A LITTLE OUTEAGEOUSNESS HOMSELF. OF COURSE, HE ADMITTED TO THE COURT, HE WAS THE AUTHOR (YOU KNOW WHO!) OF THE BOOK TAX SHELTERED INVESTMENTS. 'I INVENTED THE WHOLE THING, (CREATION)' HE SAID WITH AN IMPISH GRIN. 'THEN , WHEN I BECAME CHAIRMAN (THE SON LORD JESUS CHRIST) OF THE SEC (TRIOLOGY), I REDEMEED MY (YOUR) SINS.'
HERE WAS A TWIST ON THE OLD YELLOW SCARE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, A WETBACK INVASION ON AN ALARMING SCALE.
A REPORTER FOR U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT ASKED CASEY HOW HE REACTED TO CONGRESSIONAL (THREAT OF PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA'S INCREASED MILITARY BUILDUP)THREATS...'
'WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, ' HE ANSWERED, 'IS WHETHER OUR PRIMARY PURPOSE IS TO ESTABLISHED A BETTER SOCIETY IN EL SALVADOR (PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA), WHICH ISN'T LIKELY TO HAPPEN UNDER THE PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, OR TO PROTECT THE SECURIRTY INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES- THAT, TO CASEY, WAS THE PRISM THROUGH WHICH EVERY GLOBAL ISSUE HAD TO BE SEEN.
THIS WAS THE CONDITION THAT THE COMMUNISTS EXPLOITED.
TO CASEY, IF POVERTY (SOUTH CHINA SEA MILITARY BUILDUP) FOSTERED COMMUNISM COMMUNISM (ARMS RACE) HAD TO BE DEFEATED FIRST, BECAUSE IT THREATENED PRIORITY NUMBER ONE, U.S. SECURITY. THEN, WHEN COMMUNISM WAS ROOTED OUT, THE UNITED STATES COULD GET AROUND TO DEALING WITH ECONOMIC INJUSTICE.' (PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA MOST FAVORED TRADE AGREEMENT.)
Me-'Tell me you can do it faster. Then I ask you Peoples Republic of China can you do this at all, even at a crippling speed? No. I rest my case. I wasn't born in China. I was born in the U.S. But the gift is there for you as well.
To the People's Republic of China, I know for a fact that you read what I right. Do you remember when you photographed me holding a poster in front of the United Nations Isiah's Wall? I do.'
All very nice, but wars have always been won or lost with armies. And, the folks calling the shots don't know your name, where you are from, who is left grieving after you gave your life for some idiotic crusade.
Humans are definitely stupid enough to kill themselves and render this whole beautiful planet into something not even fit for the cockroaches. It is increasingly looking like it is only a matter when.
doesn't that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? The country that has increased its military, been saber rattling, and is currently in the middle of a land grab in the South China Sea now has a hypersonic weapon to go with its nukes. This is not the cold war, its seems like everyone now wants a real war. With this one there will be no safe haven no matter what the boneheads in charge think
The Chinese dont have the weapons they claim...even their nuclear capacity is a joke - their so-called carrier they dont have the first clue as how to operate the ship (more an inoperable hulk) much less how to use it in conjunction with their...ah ..fleet. The only thing they gotten right is that American business idiots would bend over backwards to protect their interests in China.....they deserve to loose it all - and they will, as some point in the near future China will decide to kick them out - or throw them all in a prison somewhere.
Because the human race has ceased to exist. All that remains are subhumans racing to extinction... and the fact there is only one Earth with limited resources.
ipotter nailed it. Resources. People reproduce too much, live too long and need too much to live. Do you think it's a coincidence that the two most problematic human sects, blacks and muslims, are always fighting? Do you see how many kids those people have? Africans like to put a baby in the world every year and see hundreds of thousands of them dying when the weather gets a little off and their crops are not enough. And what they do? Blame it on white people and start killing each other.
Segun, I don't agree with your Iran comment but you are right about we invade others for no reason. Maybe if we stopped that others would not all hate us so much.
Um, Brian, this line of comments pertains at least to Iraq, and Dubya acknowledged that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11 AND it had no WMDs. Dubya has openly acknowledged that. We attacked without provocation. It was an internationally disastrous public relations move for the U.S., highly immoral, and cost each taxpayer (the ones who pay 0 taxes) $50,000! Think about that.
Just trying it on for size, just to see how accurate we can target a reef in the SCS. At hypersonic speeds, no defensive system will be able to stop it in time. Missile tests like this tells the other side there's no need for bullying and threats of an attack.
Why does China want to fight US, just to destroy their own business? The US government tries to pump up the China threat, to justify their spending on military contractors.
PS If you look closely at US military spending, only a small part of the money goes to the new weapons. Most goes to contractors. That is why China, with much less resource than US, have developed some tech that even US doesn't have.
Native Americans made weapons. They fought with each other and took each others' lands all the time. Tortured their enemies to death and took their wives and children as slaves. They were people just like all the peoples of the world.
