USA, UK and Australia: Western alliance develops hypersonic weapons
USA, UK and Australia
Western Alliance develops hypersonic weapons
04/05/2022, 8:35 p.m
With the alleged use of Russian hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, the technology behind them is coming back into focus. With Great Britain, Australia and the USA, three countries now also want to develop hypersonic weapons and any defense systems.
Great Britain, Australia and the United States want to jointly develop hypersonic weapons. The trilateral cooperation takes place within the framework of the Aukus security pact concluded in September, the three countries announced in a joint statement. It is also about the “abilities of electronic warfare” and the defense against hypersonic weapons.
The topic of hypersonic weapons came into focus after Russia allegedly fired two “Kinzhal” hypersonic missiles in Ukraine. Russia, China, the US and North Korea have already tested hypersonic weapons.
In contrast to ballistic missiles such as ICBMs, whose trajectory usually corresponds to a launch parabola according to the laws of ballistics and can therefore be predicted accordingly, the “Kinzhal” remains manoeuvrable to a certain extent even at very high speeds. This allows it to better evade the defending country’s air defenses. The advantage over conventional cruise missiles, which are also steerable, is the much higher speed and thus greater penetrating power.
According to the Federal Ministry of Defense, the German defense industry is not currently working on the development of hypersonic weapons. “I cannot confirm that there are concrete development projects at the moment to produce such weapons yourself,” said a ministry spokesman. At the same time he confirmed: “It is definitely an issue for us too.” It will be examined as a “topic of future development” and “consistently promoted”.
Aukas alliance under criticism
Australia, the United States and Great Britain founded their Indo-Pacific alliance called Aukus last year and started cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines. The delivery of nuclear submarines to Australia is an integral part of Aukus. As a consequence of this alliance, Australia canceled a long-planned multi-billion dollar submarine deal with France, prompting outraged reactions from the French government.
In the meantime, Paris even withdrew its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra. The EU and Germany also criticized the approach. The Aukus alliance was concluded with a view to the militarily aspiring China. Beijing protested the alliance, saying Aukus was an “extremely irresponsible” threat to stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
