Moving from subsonic to supersonic cruse missiels.

[DARKY]

Thats why I said I wish for it.....once armed with a nuclear warhead and mounted on a fighter aircraft,this type of weapon could give us more boost than Ra'ad...

Well to mount a bhramos on a fighter you'll req. heavier fighters in the class of flankers/F-15.................light weight(JF-17) or medium weight(F-16/Mirage III Rose) won't do.................a bomber type airplane or P3C Orions would do.

 

[khurasaan1]

When you people talk of supersonic cruise missiles you tend to forget it still is a cruise missile like any other it can still maneuver at high g-rates and that too with very high speed at 10000-15000 meters come down at 10 m still perform maneuver and crash into the target with tremendous amount of kinetic energy.

Talking of stealth have you heard of SR-71 black bird, it was huge enemy could see it but couldn't intercept it even after trying 4000 times, it couldn't maneuver more than 3gs, flew higher than 15000m what it only had was supersonic speed.

And F-117 was brought down using inferior air-defense systems we are now in the age of powerful AESA radars so stealth won't survive every time...........subsonic missile wouldn't survive against supersonic interceptors in an ECM battle field where AEW&C platforms would be covering every inch of the battlefield.......its the age of hypersonic cruise missiles flying above 6 mach would also outrun most of air defense missiles.........not to forget that they would also fly low and early detection won't be possible............. guess what even the air-defence guns like the ones on Tunguska can bring down a subsonic missile.

I guess its impossible to maneuver at hypersonic speed very close to earth ..like 10m....maybe when its very near the target but not during the whole trajectory below 15m....

 

[DARKY]

I guess its impossible to maneuver at hypersonic speed very close to earth ..like 10m....maybe when its very near the target but not during the whole trajectory below 15m....

What I meant was the terminal stage.

 

[Silk]

Long discussion but no one goes into real variables. I have an opinion. If you have high speed you have less range with same weight due to to the uneconomic performance of a low low low or low high low or high high low trajectory. If you have high speed you cannot fly very low cause you have less time to react and a lot less error margin. If you have high speed then your accuracy decreases if the object moves. A subsonic CM can move around, search and wait. I doubt one can do that with Brahmos. So, there are indeed a lots of advantages but you have to understand the limitations. The Indians try to move the missile around but that does make the carrier vulnerable.

 

[Safriz]

I guess its impossible to maneuver at hypersonic speed very close to earth ..like 10m....maybe when its very near the target but not during the whole trajectory below 15m....

yes..doesnt make sense to me either.
at mach 2 and above there is a shockwave of plasma travelling just in front of the missile...if as claimed...it can go high mach at 10 meter from ground..the reboucing shockeave from ground and other objects can destroy the missile on its own.

 

[DARKY]

Long discussion but no one goes into real variables. I have an opinion. If you have high speed you have less range with same weight due to to the uneconomic performance of a low low low or low high low or high high low trajectory. If you have high speed you cannot fly very low cause you have less time to react and a lot less error margin. If you have high speed then your accuracy decreases if the object moves. A subsonic CM can move around, search and wait. I doubt one can do that with Brahmos. So, there are indeed a lots of advantages but you have to understand the limitations. The Indians try to move the missile around but that does make the carrier vulnerable.

Agreed with your 1st part weight is an issue of supersonic cruise missiles and it has to be after all you need something to burn and get supersonic.
Low low low tragectories are very rare usually its high high low/low high low...........and the high part is where subsonic are most vulnerable........accuracy doesn't have any thing to do with speed its the seeker which makes the missile more accurate and here bhramos has an edge as the block II version features sophisticated seekers that could guide the missile in an urban clutter environment.......it is funny talkin about moving targets as both missiles would have enough ammo to blow up every thing within 20-50m radius...........the 2nd advantage which subsonic missiles is that it can loiter as you said but that has very little relevance if target is being guarded by proper point defense systems infact loitering could prove disastrous in such case.............3rd is the range as subsonic missiles can provide longer range with lesser weight.