IMAGE: Su-57
Russia’s 5th generation fighter jet Su-57 will possibly be equipped with hypersonic missiles similar to the Kinzhal, but smaller, according to an anonymous aircraft industry source cited by TASS.
“In accordance with Russia’s State Armament Program for 2018-2027, Su-57 jet fighters will be equipped with hypersonic missiles. The jet fighters will receive missiles with characteristics similar to that of the Kinzhal missiles, but with inter-body placement and smaller size,” the source said.
The source provided no details regarding the characteristics of the missile to TASS. No timeline as to when the missile will be tested or ready for use was given.
The Russian Ministry of Defense’s Zvezda TV reported that the Director General of Tactical Missiles Corporation JSC Boris Obnosov said that a hypersonic missile was under development for the Su-57. According to him the weapon’s development would be finalized in the next decade.
“In the future, of course, but this weapon is for the next decade. For the Su-57, everything will be on time for it, it will certainly have a hypersonic weapon on it,” Obnosov said.
The Kinzhal hypersonic missile entered service in December 2017 as announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in on March 1st, 2018.
The Russian Areospace Forces’ MiG-31K jet fighters are currently the aircraft, which carries the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Reportedly, the Kinzhal missiles are practically impossible to detect with modern air defense systems. Their range exceeds 2,000 km.
Another one of the weapons that Putin announced also entered “experimental combat duty” on December 4th – the Peresvet combat laser system.
In addition to that Putin on March 1st revealed the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, RS-28 Sarmat ICBM, the Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System (Poseidon) and the 9M730 Burevestnik. Initially, these projects were mocked and not taken seriously by mainstream media as well as the US and allies. However, it appears that Putin’s claims were true and now there is an apparent scramble to catch up in terms of laser and hypersonic technology.
Definitely a ground attack weapon as I think it is overkill for air-to-air unless you are in a real hurry to take out the other jet. Would it be an anti-ship weapon?
A ship is a high value target, how many land based systems are worth a hypersonic missile, too expensive to use on a tank but maybe a radar system is worth it. But radars are typically multi-node, hypersonics are good at taking out one thing, high velocity, very hard to stop, their radius of destruction is small (unless a low yield nukes but then they are a weapon of last resort). Just thinking out loud. They are perfect against naval targets.
Naval targets, command centers, AD command posts etc.
Or in amerinazi talk…perfect for a “decapitation” strike.
you mean hospitals and bakeries and schools
We’re not talking about US army at this point.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
LOL! We’re “scrambling” to catch up? First we need to make our own rocket engines before we can catch up to Russia! How pathetic.
most likely targets on the ground or on sea, sort of american naval vessels – would love to see one of the disunited states of A’s missile destroyers being lit up by one of Russia’s serious missiles.
Russia has had hypersonic missiles for some time. The Iskander, that the Americans now claim breaks the INF treaty is hypersonic, and has been in service since 2006. Russia has the ability to repel any American conventional attack, and destroy American forces. So the Americans will go nuclear, Russia should strike first.