hihi24522 comments on Chinese ghost radar moves at ‘near-light-speed’ to detect submarines

[–] hihi24522@lemm.ee -5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I’m not an expert but I thought the US tested those in like the 70s and decided they weren’t very practical for US needs. In most cases, regular missiles work perfectly fine, why pay more for the same functionality?

I assume much of the current push in the US to create them is because other nations have been showing them off, not out of need.

As I understand it, the perks of hypersonics over typical missiles is the ability to fly below radar and maneuver fast enough to avoid being intercepted.

Also, Oreshnik can be intercepted by THAAD which is not even that cutting edge. I’d image the American military would prefer taking the time to develop something that can at least pose a challenge to their basic, standard missile defense system.

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[–] MasterDeeLuke@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Best case scenario is that a THAAD might be able to intercept an Oreshnik if it empties it's entire payload, in which case a second Orenshnik could simply be for launched for less cost then the THAAD missiles and several times less if it manages to destroy the THAAD battery. There is a reason Ukraine still hasn't gotten a THAAD system.

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[–] hihi24522@lemm.ee 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

Do you have a source for cost comparison? Not doubting you just curious if it’s intuition or if there’s a spec on how much Oreshnik costs, THAAD definitely is hella expensive.

But oreshnik is certainly more expensive than non hypersonic options. So your point with Ukraine is kind of a counter argument. If the need for hypersonic is to avoid interception by advanced systems, and Ukraine has none of those systems, why waste the better weapons in a situation where they’re unnecessary?

I suppose Ukraine has been able to shoot down Russia’s other hypersonic missiles (Kinzhals) with just patriots so maybe this is Russia stepping up its game to try and counter those? Still seems like overkill to me but this whole topic is rather new to me so it’s likely I’m missing context.

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[–] MasterDeeLuke@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'll be going off wikipedia info but it is what it is. There is some speculation that the Oreshnik is based off the Baluva which is around 30-40 million, so we will double that for the Oreshnik and assume something like 80 million. A one THAAD missile costs around 12.5 million with a battery holding 48 missiles on it. It would reasonably take around 36 missiles to intercept the Oreshnik's different warheads assuming it's possible at all. 12.5 x 36 = $450 million. The battery itself is 1 to 2 billion dollars. Granted, the US does have a much larger total GDP then Russia, but raw GDP doesn't translate well very to warfighting capability and production, otherwise Russia wouldn't even be a problem for NATO at all right now in the first place.

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