What's The Difference Between Ballistic And Hypersonic Missiles?
Story by Casey Cooper • 13h
Initially, ballistic and hypersonic missiles would appear to be interchangeable tools of modern warfare. After all, both can cover enormous distances and reach mind-bending speeds. But underneath their shared lethality, their operation and what exactly makes them dangerous fundamentally differ. Launched into space to descend back to Earth, traditional ballistic missiles (like intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs) rely primarily on gravity and momentum after the initial burn. As such, they follow a parabolic arc. Conversely, hypersonic missiles are designed to fly inside the atmosphere at speeds above Mach 5 while maneuvering en route to their targets.
This important difference affects not only theoretical but practical aspects of both deploying and countering these weapons. Fast but predictable, ballistic missiles have been around since the Cold War and are more vulnerable to modern missile defense systems even if they can carry nuclear payloads across continents. More recently developed are hypersonic missiles, particularly cruise missiles and glide vehicles (HGVs). Their erratic, low-altitude maneuverability makes them far more difficult to find and stop.
The line separating strategic advantage from global instability is diminishing as nations rush to create these next-generation hypersonic weapons. To appreciate how warfare is changing in the 21st century, one must first understand the technological and tactical variations among these missile types.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/what-s-the-difference-between-ballistic-and-hypersonic-missiles/ar-AA1FiXOE?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6aa8614fb4fb46dc80ef121f7a66379e&ei=58
