Israeli company Rafael has developed a SkySonic missile system designed to intercept targets moving at hypersonic speeds. We are talking about real hypersonic missiles and aircraft equipped with hypersonic jet engines, not rockets that can reach these speeds thanks to a solid fuel booster.

Modern anti-missile complexes are capable of destroying targets only on opposite routes. And in order to catch a hypersonic target, it is necessary to move several times faster than it, that is, if we take the lower limit of hypersonic speed at Mach 5 – Mach 10, the speed of the SkySonic missile should be approx. , ie 3.4 km/h. For the SkySonic system, the developer has already announced that targets are stopped at mach 10.

The SkySonic rocket is based on a two-stage system, and it is the second-stage booster that enables the rocket to reach such high speeds.

The main feature of SkySonic is not only the acquisition of hyper-sound, which requires a number of scientific advances in materials and fuel, but also the reaction rate of the system itself and the means of orientation in the terminal area.

And returning to the subject of hitting hypersonic targets in pursuit, how the latter will be implemented in conditions where the striker block actually flies through plasma is probably SkySonic’s most important secret. It is also about ensuring that such a system works in “space” conditions of approaching speeds of about 7 km / h. Source