The Wire · live GRID-REF 37°47′N 122°25′W
DISPATCH 03/26 · 8 Sep 2026
BattlePolicy
Startup to front line. Strategy to consequence.
Tag

hypersonic

12 articles
3
ChinaPro

DF-27

The DF-27 is China's ICBM-range hypersonic glide missile — per the Pentagon a fielded conventional ICBM with the world's longest-range anti-ship variant, reaching Hawaii, Alaska and much of the Pacific. Never shown or acknowledged by Beijing; nearly all data traces to one leaked US document.

4
IranPro

Fattah-2

Iran's hypersonic-glide evolution of the Fattah-1 — a missile pairing a solid-fuel booster with a maneuvering liquid-fuel glide vehicle, claimed to reach Mach 15 over ~1,500 km. Topical after the Israel–Iran exchanges, but its real performance is heavily disputed.

5
ChinaPro

YJ-21

China's ship-and-air-launched anti-ship hypersonic ballistic missile — a "carrier killer" with a maneuvering glide vehicle fired from Type 055 destroyers and H-6N bombers. The core of the A2/AD picture meant to hold US carriers at risk deep in the Pacific.

6
USAPro

Castelion Blackbeard

A startup's bet that hypersonics can be cheap. Castelion — founded by ex-SpaceX engineers — is building Blackbeard, a Mach 5+ strike missile aimed at ~$300k a round and 500 a year, applying the drone war's "affordable mass" logic to a weapon legacy primes sell for $40M.

8
USAPro

Dark Eagle

The US Army’s first intermediate-range hypersonic weapon — a road-mobile boost-glide missile designed to strike defended targets at theatre depth with a speed of Mach 5+, up to 3,500 km range, and a common All-Up Round shared with the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike programme.

9
RussiaPro

Zircon

Russia’s ship- and coast-launched scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile — a carrier-killer with nuclear capability, used sparingly against Ukraine since 2024.

10
RussiaPro

Oreshnik

Russia’s road-mobile, MIRV-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile — a post-INF dual-use weapon employed sparingly for strategic messaging rather than battlefield effect.

11
RussiaPro

Kinzhal

Russia's air-launched aeroballistic missile, marketed as a hypersonic "Dagger" and carried by modified MiG-31K interceptors — a weapon whose "uninterceptable" myth was punctured when a Patriot battery shot one down over Kyiv.

12
ChinaPro

DF-17

China's road-mobile DF-17 marries a medium-range ballistic missile booster to the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle — a maneuvering, low-altitude payload built to outwit missile defenses and hit fixed high-value targets at 1,800–2,500 km.