MOSCOW – Russia does not steal US technology from hypersonic weapons, on the contrary, it is a leader in this sphere, which is confirmed by Russian hypersonic weaponry that has no analogues in the US, experts say.
Previously, US National Security Adviser John Bolton accused Russia of stealing US technologies related to the development of hypersonic weapons.
It is impossible to create hypersonic weapons if we simply try to apply existing technologies, which requires the parallel development of various spheres of economics and science, such as material science and precision mechanics, military expert Igor Korotchenko believes.
“Why then don’t we have the US models? This shows that we are really ahead of the US in hypersonic technologies and new delivery, where we simply make our own developments. Bolton’s statements are yet another example of anti-Russian rhetoric from senior US officials,” Korotchenko said.
The expert did not rule out that Bolton claims that Russia “steals” technology to justify US taxpayers for the lack of similar weapons in the US.
Russian technologies
Viktor Murakhovsky, a Russian military expert and member of the expert council of the Military Industrial Commission, believes that the key technological elements needed to achieve hypersonic speed were tested in the USSR.
At the time, thermal protection materials were created for the reusable Buran spacecraft, which entered the atmosphere at hypersonic speed.
In addition, modern intercontinental ballistic missiles in service in Russia are also equipped with combat units that enter the atmosphere at hypersonic speed, he recalled.
“And, of course, the key elements, such as heat-resistant insulating materials that can withstand temperatures of thousands of degrees, are still being developed. Today the idea of a guided hypersonic missile came up,” Murakhovsky said.
‘Hypersonic’ difference between US and Russia
For Viktor Murakhovsky, the physics of the atmosphere and the movement in it at hypersonic speed is the same anywhere in the world, so that US hypersonic weapons are not fundamentally different from those of Russia.
He noted that Russia has already started serial production of Avangard hypersonic missiles, has begun operating Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and will soon begin production of the Tsikron hypersonic cruise missile.
“We are ahead of them in practice. I think their work is still in the design and early prototype phases, taking at least 5-7 years to get a real product,” Murakhovsky concluded.