Space is rapidly becoming the new frontier for military competition and growth with advanced hypersonic missiles.
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| [Satellite in space/Pexels] |
When we think of war today, we mostly think of battles fought on or near the ground between nations. However, in order to see the conflicts of tomorrow, we'll need to zoom out a little, as yesterday's science fiction easily transforms into tomorrow's warzone.
Space is rapidly becoming the new frontier for military competition and growth, more than 60 years after the first man-made satellite was launched.
The modern world is becoming highly reliant on continuously updating satellite constellations. These modern yet insecure satellites are used for everything from ordering a cab to getting your food shipped to finding your place in the woods.
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However, these crucial aspects of modern life have little to no defenses, and major powers have been working on ways to sabotage or knock out their adversary's satellites while preserving their own.
Space lasers, in fact, are becoming a reality.
The development of the much-maligned but increasingly important United States Space Force demonstrates this recognition of space as a modern domain with brand new forms of conflict.
The United States has started designing intelligence-gathering spacecraft such as the X-37B. It is unmanned and resembles a smaller version of space shuttles. It is highly maneuverable and has been approaching potential adversary satellites to collect useful data and, on rare occasions, damage them.
The invention of a new extremely powerful weapon - hypersonic missiles - is also linked to the rush to defend and attack these systems.
Hypersonic missiles are the most powerful weapons ever devised in human history. It has long been a desired weapon among superpowers and technologically advanced nations.
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| [Hypersonic Missile] |
The speed of sound is often used to compare flight speed. The sound speed is Mach 1. The sound moves ten times faster through the air than we do on the highway. Commercial airplanes, for example, fly sub-sonically at Mach 1 or less. At Mach 2 or 3, a modern fighter can fly supersonically. Hypersonic speed is described as Mach 5 or higher. The maximum speed is Mach 25.
Space agencies already have hyper-sonically fast space shuttles that travel at Mach 20 or 24. However, it is just hyper-sonically traveling for a brief period of time. However, technology that enables continuous hypersonic flight and weaponises this cutting-edge hi-tech is just now evolving.
However, as time passes, information about these developments may become more widely available. Hypersonic cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles are two types of missiles that are being developed.
Hypersonic missiles aren't technically faster than existing missiles, but their ability to maneuver and change course after take-off sets them apart. No current missile defense system that relies on missiles following a predictable path is prepared for this form of attack in any way.
Hypersonic missiles could pierce any missile defense shield if they were used today. However, these weapons are still in development and depend on satellite communications to function.
Hypersonic glide vehicles that leave the Earth's atmosphere and re-enter it must withstand temperatures of up to 2200 degrees Celsius.
Titanium melts at a temperature of 1670 degrees Fahrenheit. This intense heat creates a cloud of supercharged particles known as plasma, which makes normal radio contact extremely difficult.
The missiles are also programmed to change course at random, putting tension on the weapon and possibly breaking it apart. As nations struggle to defend and update their properties above, this means the infrastructure to communicate and monitor these arms isn't yet in place.
This new opportunity ushers us into an age that has never been seen before. The US doctrine of Prompt Global Strike seeks to build a device that can reach a target anywhere in the world with a precision conventional warhead in under an hour.
The Space Force will be in charge of sensor integration, threat identification, and weapon deployment.
However, hypersonic missiles would be crucial in making this a possibility. And the United States isn't the only place where they exist.
China and Russia have already conducted successful tests of hypersonic missiles, and India, France, and Japan are expected to follow suit within a decade.
As a result, we are entering an age in which many of the world's forces would possess weapons capable of bypassing any current defenses.
Existing treaties between nations, such as the New START treaty from the Cold War period, are rapidly becoming obsolete, and the current arms race gives competing nations hope of one day defeating a superpower like the United States if they can only move fast enough.