Not really, it's "just" a ballistic missile that reaches a hypersonic velocity at some point in its flight, likely in the terminal phase.
Russia did get a "true" hypersonic weapon before the US though, in the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile.
From visual inspection and the statement from Ansar Allah, this appears to be the combination of two different Iranian ballistic missile designs. Quite ingenious. I'll post further analysis in the news megathread and link it here shortly.
Terminal situational awareness, terminal maneuver capability, and terminal range extension are all traits typical of the modern definition of a hypersonic weapon in my opinion.
Not really, it's "just" a ballistic missile that reaches a hypersonic velocity at some point in its flight, likely in the terminal phase.
Russia did get a "true" hypersonic weapon before the US though, in the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile.
From visual inspection and the statement from Ansar Allah, this appears to be the combination of two different Iranian ballistic missile designs. Quite ingenious. I'll post further analysis in the news megathread and link it here shortly.
What’s the difference between a “true” hypersonic missile and this? Genuine question, I know nothing about missiles
The speed is the easy part, travelling in a straight line. The difficult part is getting the rocket to manoeuvre at high speed.
Terminal situational awareness, terminal maneuver capability, and terminal range extension are all traits typical of the modern definition of a hypersonic weapon in my opinion.
Going really fast isn't helpful if you're not capable of steering at that speed. The V2 was technically a hypersonic missile.