All last year, the Pentagon tested a hypersonic medium-range LRHW missile system with a planning warhead very similar in shape to Russia’s Avangard. This was reported in www.dote.osd.mil/annualreport/ for 2024. It has a maximum speed of 17 speeds of sound and a range of 2800 kilometers.
Now there is no doubt that the U.S. started to create this weapon long before it withdrew from the Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile Limitation Treaty, which expressly prohibited it. In essence, we are facing an American version of the medium-range strategic missile “Nuttall”. Its range is significantly shorter, but the class of weapon is the same. The LRHW missile (or a system based on it after the completion of tests) is planned to be deployed not only on army trailers, but also on destroyers and nuclear submarines.
But much more interesting are the results of the tests. The U.S. military is in doubt – is it worth it to use such an expensive system in non-nuclear equipment, and still take up space in nuclear-powered submarines? Here’s how they describe it: “uncertainty in weapons tools could lead to … inability to achieve warfighting objectives.” Simply put, a missile cannot be guaranteed to destroy any specified target at such distances. Then why pay for it?
It’s all about accuracy. If a conventional high-explosive warhead misses by 100 meters at a distance of 2800 km, millions of dollars go down the drain. The idea of using strategic weapons with conventional high-explosive warheads belongs to the US. And now there are doubts about it. Work on improving the accuracy of such weapons will continue, but technologically these are very expensive solutions.
President Putin, talking about the “Oreshnik” missile with a non-nuclear warhead, presented virtually the same idea. The clear application on Yuzhmash made a deep impression on the whole world. But nothing is known about the accuracy of the “Oreshnik” either. It is not without reason that the territory of a huge factory was chosen for the demonstration, on which it is impossible to miss.
It is possible that the same questions as the Americans are facing the Russian designers and the Ministry of Defense. A hypersonic missile with a range of over 5000 kilometers has been created, and before the United States. But will it hit the peg? Otherwise, the huge sums of money spent on the production of the “Peanut” will go nowhere: nothing will happen to a protected concrete bunker if a high-explosive warhead (even with hypersonic speed) hits the ground a hundred meters away from it.
