The Philippines, a U.S. ally, has hailed as a “game-changer” the delivery of new supersonic missiles that it believes will significantly beef up its coastal defenses amid rising tensions with China.
The first batch of BrahMos cruise missiles, ordered from India two years ago, arrived at Clark International Airport north of Manila on Friday. It was handed over to the Philippine marines to be deployed at an as yet undisclosed location within the country’s archipelagic territory.
The high-profile arms transfer comes in the middle of the simmering Philippines-China dispute in the contested Spratly Islands archipelago of the South China Sea, where the Chinese and Philippines coast guards have clashed over territorial features claimed by both sides.
Just because hypersonic are reported on frequently as a catchy headline doesn’t mean they are functional weapons that any given country could go out and buy on the open market. They are very much in the test/development stage and only in reach for the top global super powers. No, it’s not as fast as the vaporwave buzzwords and if we’re doing our procurement from the ACE Combat DLC marketplace then sure, but for context, the US still relies primarily on the Tomahawk which flies at M.74, the same as a C-17. This absolutely is a high speed cruise missile.
The difference is usually in the purpose. Right now high speed missiles are great at interception. While slower missiles are better at target striking. This is because it’s really hard to go fast enough to not get hit in the terminal stage. It either has to follow a predictable trajectory or slow down to maneuver. So the US chooses missiles that fly low, follow terrain, and do crazy maneuvers in the terminal stage.
Yeah, but to say a Mach 3 cruise missile isn’t high speed because it isn’t hypersonic is missing the point.
Yeah, yeah that’s certainly true.