The Hell You Say...

 ... this cannot be. Nah, I am screwing with you, of course. 

PARIS — Hypersonic weapons are likely still decades away from fielding, and the requisite research is best carried out collaboratively among Western nations, according to Kerstin Huber, executive officer for applied vehicle technology at NATO’s Science and Technology Organization. “I would think it needs another 20 years,” Huber told Defense News on the sidelines of a round table discussion on the technology at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris.

And how could this be, for years we have been told that any minute now those things will be developed and deployed. Ah, here it is:

Shielding hypersonic missiles’ sensitive electronics, understanding how various materials behave and predicting aerodynamics at temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius) will require extensive flight testing, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office said in a 2023 report, adding that test failures in recent years have delayed progress.

No shit, geniuses, pardon my French. How about "going back to school" and trying to develop supersonic missile, such as P-800 Onyx or, for that matter, Mach=4.2 Kh-32, both of which have been used to a devastating effect in SMO? How about getting those precious datasets, telemetry, develop materials, develop extremely high impulse fuels such as decilin, ability to control missile et al. Recall, two plus years ago I warned: 

The "catch up" is in quotation marks deliberately, because as Knutov (and many other serious specialists in the filed, not least the President of Russia himself) note for years--the lag of 5-7 years which will be permanent (why, is a separate issue) will constantly mean not only better and generation ahead weapons, but systems of countering of appearing US weapons as a systems of previous generations. 

Boy, was I overly optimistic. So, 20 years, eh. Hey, I merely report the news here. Remember 2018 and all those Western "experts" who spoke about those boutique weapons? And then suddenly the term hypersonic became so popular in the West. Well, as they say in Caucasus--no matter how many times you repeat the word baklava it will not get any sweeter in your mouth.