From Skipping Stones to Raining Terror

Dr. N.C. Asthana

The recent test of the Chinese Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV) has unnerved most of the world. The HGV could potentially render all existing ballistic missile defences (BMD) useless and thus lead to instability in the world. The Russians have already marched ahead with their Avangard HGV.

The Americans are particularly nervous because this is technology they are yet to master. Their third attempt on 28 September, 2021, with Lockheed Martin’s prototype, ended in failure. While the missile successfully separated from the B-52H bomber, the rocket did not ignite.

Given their complexity, hypersonic glide vehicles remain a mystery to most.  We try to explain what they are, how they differ from conventional ballistic missiles and what they can do.

Conventional ballistic missiles operate on the same principle as employed for firing a gun or throwing a stone. You impart a high velocity to a bullet, shell or a missile. Depending on its initial velocity, the projectile can travel anywhere from a few yards to a few thousand miles following equations of ballistic trajectory that students routinely solve in high school.

The father of all modern military missiles and space-research rockets is Nazi Germany’s famous V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe-2 meaning Retribution Weapon-2) ballistic missile. After the fall of Germany, in a secret program called Operation Paper Clip, more than 1,600 Nazi scientists including 126 principal designers, were taken to the US to work in their nascent rocketry programme. Three hundred rail-car loads of V-2s and their parts were shipped to the US, where they laid the foundation of all their future liquid-fuel rockets and missiles.

Yet another legacy of Nazi genius

The V-2 was not the only great contribution of Nazi Germany to the science and technology of weapons. In their quest to develop ‘wonder weapons’ they pushed the boundaries of human intellect. They made the world’s first assault rifle Stg-44; the world’s first military jet Me-262; and the world’s first cruise missile V-1, besides some futuristic systems that could not materialize at that time for want of appropriate technology.

One such futuristic system was envisioned by a genius called Eugen Sanger. An Austrian-born aeronautical engineer, Sanger was a member of the Nazi party as well as the notorious SS Gestapo!

Sanger was obsessed with bombing the American mainland from across the Atlantic. A grandiose idea - in an era when flying a missile across the English Channel was regarded a great achievement. Sanger realized that ballistic missiles had inherent limitations of range. Making them bigger and bigger, increased both cost and complexity prohibitively.

Sanger proposed a novel idea — as out-of-the-box as it could be. In principle, his idea was somewhat like the game of Ducks and Drakes. Kids throw a flat piece of stone at a shallow angle, on a huge expanse of water. Instead of sinking in the water, the stone skips on it several