Yes and that is NOT a cruise missile, despite its title...

Cent I think they have their termonology incorrect...

Its simply a hypersonic missile... not to different in approach to the old Talos which used a ramjet to accelerate the missile to mach 3... and it was designed by my Dad back in the 50s for the USN as a surface to surface and surface to air missile...


I don't see where this missile actually qualifies as a cruise missile, since it has no wings or other conventional flight controls and relies on thrust and thrust vectoring to fly and not aerodynamics, thus its a regular missile, intermediate ranged...

They may be attempting to classify it as a cruise missle, to avoid some of the SALT II limiations on intermediate missile development, but its no cruise missile, no matter how you look at it...


CAG out...

actually the missile qualifies as a cruise missile through only one of the requirements... that it is powered by an air breathing engine... However so was the Talos and so is the meteor, and I am sure you would not call either o fthese wepaons cruise missiles...

The other definitions of a crusie missile is that it 'flies' to target via aerodynamic lift wiht items such as wings or at the very least a lifting body (Like the test vehicle used by nasa in the original description above)...

This missile is more of a cross, its design is that of a standard missile with no aerodynamic assistance for lift and relies on pure thrust to sustain flight, but used a air breather engine to sustain it...

But in the reality of daylight, its simply a missile, not a real crusie missile, though I am certain the US will use the airbreather engine description to skirt SALT II limitations...

CAG out...