Reads strange. Hypersonic = 3500 MPH, low altitude = heat from high drag and also lowers endurance of flight time. A front facing window of IR transparent stuff, will soon get too hot and it's emitted IR will overload the sensors. It must front face = that is where it is going.
They might have snap open/close windows that the sensor looks through for 1-5 ms while open so the cooled sensor can see the target. Repeated 1-5 ms snapshots are used for targeting - must be close, target drift is fast at 3500 MPH, snap you have passed it...
At Mach 5+ there is not one redeeming quality to a "heat-seeker" when your non-destructive turning radius is measured in miles.
Unless they think they are going to get into "hypersonic missile on hypersonic missile dogfights", in which case, have fun with that.
Hell, the physics just don't work out. You've got a detached boundary layer of superheated compressed gas sitting on top of your sensor. Any distant IR source's contribution to thermal irradiance would be a fart in the wind comparatively, and your only potential utility will be tracking things you happen to be going in the same direction as, at the same rate of speed, and incapable of changing direction faster than you can or seeing or being aware of your big f-off launch plumes from your initial boost phase.
I really don't care how precise you IR sensor is. You can get perfect resolution of the Mona effing Lisa in the IR band for all I care.
You are travelling Mach bloody 5+. In 1 second, your velocity has you going 1 mile -> this way, and your targeting system just told you you needed to go <- that way after taking a chunk of that second to even sample and analyze whatever it was hitting it's sensor, and updating it's world representation. Doesn't even help in ballistic missile defense; you're going the wrong way for your maneuvering capabilities to make a difference.
All this sounds like is a shot at trying to goad excessive defense spending a la SDI. Even taking into account a generous helping of woo space for capabilities no one is willing to admit to for national security reasons.
IMO this is hinting at PRC pursuing (conventional) prompt global strike with hypersonics. Other moves like building up nuclear stockpile to move away from minimum deterrence etc supports such posture change. I've speculated this is the best capability for PRC to acquire to counter US power projection and other capability asymmetries.
Key line from article:
“With effective hypersonic precision strike weapons, the critical value of ‘strategic depth’ in traditional warfare will no longer exist. All the critical political, economic and military assets of a country will be at risk.”
There was another piece by SCMP from PRC researchers working on AI to calibrate hypersonic hardware accuracy down to 10 meters. That's the level of accuracy/CEP that can hit target of any size, anywhere. Better IR detectors is just another piece of the capability puzzle.
Combine this with PRC building up nuclear stockpile, basically moving away from minimum deterrence, while maintaining No First Use. Suggests PRC wants to eventually build nuclear MAD to gamble hitting CONUS targets with conventional hypersonic/ICBMs without triggering immediate second strike.
China also has missiles that it has created to sink carriers[0]. My simpleton understanding of it, is that they get to an extremely high altitude and sink straight on the carrier at hypersonic speeds which prevent it from defending itself.
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[ 1.5 ms ] story [ 19.2 ms ] threadAt Mach 5+ there is not one redeeming quality to a "heat-seeker" when your non-destructive turning radius is measured in miles.
Unless they think they are going to get into "hypersonic missile on hypersonic missile dogfights", in which case, have fun with that.
Hell, the physics just don't work out. You've got a detached boundary layer of superheated compressed gas sitting on top of your sensor. Any distant IR source's contribution to thermal irradiance would be a fart in the wind comparatively, and your only potential utility will be tracking things you happen to be going in the same direction as, at the same rate of speed, and incapable of changing direction faster than you can or seeing or being aware of your big f-off launch plumes from your initial boost phase.
I really don't care how precise you IR sensor is. You can get perfect resolution of the Mona effing Lisa in the IR band for all I care.
You are travelling Mach bloody 5+. In 1 second, your velocity has you going 1 mile -> this way, and your targeting system just told you you needed to go <- that way after taking a chunk of that second to even sample and analyze whatever it was hitting it's sensor, and updating it's world representation. Doesn't even help in ballistic missile defense; you're going the wrong way for your maneuvering capabilities to make a difference.
All this sounds like is a shot at trying to goad excessive defense spending a la SDI. Even taking into account a generous helping of woo space for capabilities no one is willing to admit to for national security reasons.
Key line from article:
“With effective hypersonic precision strike weapons, the critical value of ‘strategic depth’ in traditional warfare will no longer exist. All the critical political, economic and military assets of a country will be at risk.”
There was another piece by SCMP from PRC researchers working on AI to calibrate hypersonic hardware accuracy down to 10 meters. That's the level of accuracy/CEP that can hit target of any size, anywhere. Better IR detectors is just another piece of the capability puzzle.
Combine this with PRC building up nuclear stockpile, basically moving away from minimum deterrence, while maintaining No First Use. Suggests PRC wants to eventually build nuclear MAD to gamble hitting CONUS targets with conventional hypersonic/ICBMs without triggering immediate second strike.
[0]: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/df-100-are-these-ch...