Some months ago I read that the US will deliver to Ukraine brand new Abrams with a downgraded armor package. They don’t won’t to risk their state-of-the-art hardware falling into Russia’s hands. Unlike say the Leopard, the armor on the Abrams is not as modular which is why they opted to manufacture them friendly scratch. Obviously, this will take quite some time.
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
The process of training the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the operation of leopard 1A5 tanks by instructors from Denmark. The course itself takes place in Germany.
An American AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile was shot down over the Polje River in the Zaporozhye region.
"Ukraine has also just completed a process of integrating other kit, incl. Soviet-era Buks & S-300s, into a new centralised C2 system. When a target is identified, the most effective missile is used against it, hitting it as far away from the city as possible."
Strela 10 shot down UAV near Bakhmut
Lancet strike on a P-18 surveillance radar.
UKR soldiers surrender to Russian forces
An American AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile was shot down over the Polje River in the Zaporozhye region.
"Ukraine has also just completed a process of integrating other kit, incl. Soviet-era Buks & S-300s, into a new centralised C2 system. When a target is identified, the most effective missile is used against it, hitting it as far away from the city as possible."
Strela 10 shot down UAV near Bakhmut
Lancet strike on a P-18 surveillance radar.
UKR soldiers surrender to Russian forces
A useful anecdote, even if there are inaccuracies present. Thank you for sharing, bookmarked it for future reference.
1240 m/s is like Mach 3.6 (sea level). Normal if it was a max-range shot.
I’m not too familiar with missile tech, but isn’t the speed of a hypersonic missile supposed to be consistent?
I think not. As the missle dives on it's target, the air dramatically thickens resulting in a massive increase in resistence, which is probably why it slows down. This was also observed with the zircon missile test, it slowed to around mach 2 during final approach.
D
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It's a ballistic, it gains spread constantly throughout its flight. Slowly at first then more rapidly as it gets closer to the target. Cruise missiles are the ones with generally consistent speed.
Hypersonic in this context denotes a missile which not only travels at mach 5+ but is also either a cruise missile or glide vehicle. Technically speaking although almost all ballistics travel at hypersonic speeds during late flight, they do not qualify as hypersonic in this sense.
Unlike normal high-speed munitions such as ballistic missiles, hypersonics travel inside the atmosphere. We don't know about Kinzhal but Iskander, which Kinzhal is mostly the air-launched version of, travels at an altitude of around 50 km. Air is around 1000 times thinner at that altitude but Mach 5+ velocities still mean substantial drag. So yes, hypersonics slow down. I am not surprised that Kinzhal slow downs fast. Lift-to-drag ratio is extremely important here.