A hypersonic missile travels at extremely high speed, typically at Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound, 3,800 mph) or greater, which makes them more difficult to shoot down with a missile defense system.
China, Russia and Iran have developed this technology. The Russian Kinzhal (Dagger) is the most famous combat tested hypersonic missile. In the United States, former SpaceX employees founded Castelion, which is a for-profit private-sector company attempting to develop this advanced technology.[1]
Nomenclature
1. Hypersonic cruise missile
A surface-launched missile, which remains in the Earth's atmosphere for its entire hypersonic flight. It may ascend to stratospheric altitude during its flight, or it may fly at low level. There is only one surface-launched hypersonic cruise missile in current service worldwide, and that is the scramjet-powered 3M22 Zircon.
2. Aeroballistic hypersonic missile
An air-launched missile, which after separation from its launching aircraft, rises into a ballistic trajectory which may or may not leave Earth's atmosphere. Examples of such missiles are the Russian Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, the Kh-22/32. There exist aeroballistic missiles made by other countries however none are true hypersonic weapons, and none have more than a small fraction of the payload of the above-mentioned Russian systems.
3. Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV)
- See also: Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle
A system where a ballistic missile releases a MaRV (Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle), which does not follow a pure ballistic trajectory once it exits the atmosphere. Instead, the MaRV uses both rocket motors and aerodynamic forces to follow an unpredictable flight path at the very edge of the upper atmosphere.
HGVs have the following advantages:
a) much greater range for a given size of booster - as its name suggests, the HGV "glides" on top of the atmosphere using a sustainer rocket, maintaining altitude without losing speed. This allows the missile to use a much flatter and more efficient trajectory.
b) Less time to target - the flatter trajectory simply means less distance to travel, therefore less time is spent compared to the unpowered exoatmospheric coasting phase of traditional ballistic missiles.
c) Better survivability - The flight path of HGVs, in particular their ability to maneuver into and out of space, makes them extremely difficult to target using even the most sophisticated exoatmospheric anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) such as the US THAAD, Israeli Arrow-2, or Russian S-400 and S-500. This is because these systems were designed to release an exoatmospheric kill vehicle which engages passive, non-maneuverable targets coasting on a predictable, computable ballistic trajectory in space. The flight envelope of current generation exoatmospheric kill vehicles does not allow them to reliably engage HGVs.
The only country in the world which has proven stockpiles of HGV weapons, is the Islamic Republic of Iran, which fields missiles such as the Kheybar Shekan.
Development
Hypersonic missiles are a new arms race and analysts have known for years that China is way ahead. Russia and Iran also have successful hypersonic missile programs. The emphasis in the United States Congress and the Pentagon is how to close the gap and catch up and develop American hypersonic systems.
China, Russia and Iran have hypersonic missiles, and lots of them. These missiles cannot be intercepted.
China is the world leader in the development, testing and deployment of hypersonic missiles ahead of Russia. The United States doesn't have any. The US Air Force and US Army hoped to have them in the field years ago, but the Air Force cancelled the program and started all over. And the US Army's program has been delayed by years.
In the case of the US Navy, they shut down one of their programs completely. The Navy's plans were for a hypersonic anti-ship missile, but halted the program because of cost and industrial-based factors. The US does not have the supply chains or the industrial capacity to build them.
Those programs were for offensive hypersonic missiles. The United States and NATO countries do not have hypersonic missiles, and for economic reasons can't build them, even if they knew which ones could work. Meanwhile, China has hundreds of them.
Russia also has them. The Russian Oreshnik is a hypersonic missile which was combat tested for the first time in late 2024 in Ukraine. Russia then announced that the Oreshnik is now being mass produced in serial production. Russia has another class of hypersonic missile called the Kinzhal. Russian production of missiles of all kinds, ballistics, cruise, hypersonics are far ahead of Western countries production of interceptor missiles. In June 2025, Russia built 195 strategic missiles. By contrast, in the West for the whole of 2024 to July 2025 Lockheed Martin built 600 interceptor missiles, Japan built 30, and Germany built none. At least two interceptors are needed to engage a single inbound.
The Iranians have three hypersonic missile platforms which pose big problems for Israel and for American and allied forces in the Middle East. They enhance Iran's ability to project power across the region and shift the balance of power. Iran has a credible deterrent against military intervention. Iran used hypersonic munitions against Israel in the 12 Day War. Interception was impossible by the Israeli Defense Forces.
There is no defense against these weapons.
Combat testing
- See also: NATO war in Ukraine
Shortly after the commencement of Russia's Special Military Operation in 2022, Russian Armed Forces fired the first of many hypersonic missiles at a Concentration Center in the northwest of Ukraine, killing and dismembering some hundreds of Ukrainian and foreign soldiers and mercenaries. Since then, there have been many uses of the many variants of Russian hypersonic missiles across the Ukraine, including Deep Earth Penetrators to kill Ukrainian, NATO and British officers and staff and destroy their deep underground bunker complexes. U.S. military sources acknowledge the successful fielding of Russian hypersonics, such performance that cannot be intercepted by U.S. Anti-Missile Systems as "eye watering."[2]
Ukraine Ministry of Defense claims a 25% interception rate for Russian hypersonic Kinzhal and Zircon missiles, but Ukrainian sources also indicate such interceptions require salvo firing all 32 launchers in a US-style Patriot missile battery to have any chance to shoot down a single hypersonic missile.