When Vladimir Putin confirmed, in March 2018 on the sidelines of the Russian presidential elections, the existence of the Kh47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, Westerners were stunned in the face of Moscow's technological advance in a field likely to give Russian forces a more than significant tactical advantage over NATO. Since then, the United States, like its European, Japanese and South Korean allies, have launched a large number of programs aimed at design, as quickly as possible, hypersonic weapons, whether implemented by land, naval or air vectors.
It must be said that there is no shortage of hypersonic missiles of interests from an operational point of view. Not only do they strike so quickly that modern anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems are unable to intercept them, but they very significantly reduce the flight time and therefore the reaction capacities of potential targets, forcing the military to review in depth their information systems as well as their decision-making processes to hope to answer them. Finally, a hypersonic missile conveys, in addition to its military charge, a very significant kinetic energy capable, by itself, of causing considerable damage on impact. Thus, the kinetic energy of a hypersonic missile flying at Mach 5 is 20 times greater than that of the same missile evolving at Mach 1.
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