A ballistic weapon follows a somewhat parabolic trajectory. It goes way up, often into outer space, then it falls down with enormous speed. A bunch of potential energy is built up in its boost phase, and released as kinetic energy in a much shorter dive, usually exceeding several times the speed of sound.
A hypersonic weapon can travel at low altitudes in sustained flight in a non-parabolic flight path. That is the key differentiator. How you get there is up to you.
To that end, that often implies other things. Lower altitudes often has stuff you have to go around: the earth itself (sea level), hills or mountains, buildings, observation posts, radars, or you might want it to take a particular approach path in general for geopolitical reasons and fly it in commercial airline flight paths or along borders. This often means a lot of power is required to sustain flight, so usually not carrying your oxidizer is handy.
Unfortunately not anymore. Rumor is russian developers added a new capability this year - ability to deviate from ballistic trajectory just enough to avoid PATRIOT interceptors.
How exactly would the process even look like? You have a, presumably, very sophisticated EW setup, can you just upload mp3 files via Bluetooth, does it have a USB port or what? Why would the actual RF engineers building this go out of their way to enable crews to screw with the equipment like that.
The whole things seems extremely implausible. Other sources report the same exact story as if it were an established fact, but I highly doubt that.
It has been circulated that Kinzhals can now maneuver a bit, just enough to avoid PATRIOT interceptors and it looks like it's true.
fcpk•2mo ago
"Bandera was a World War II Ukrainian insurgent" he is a very very controversial character[0] and that description is quite reducing.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera
renw0rp•2mo ago
Semaphor•2mo ago
edit: I’d appreciate comments explaining why I’m wrong besides drive by downvotes.
andrewflnr•2mo ago
inglor_cz•2mo ago
Bandera was not a nice person, but neither were the Russian rulers whom the current Russian government lionizes as great people. As for Nazism in general, Wagner Group was founded by an actual Nazi.
It all boils down to Lenin's "Who? Whom?"
drysine•2mo ago
Neither was Hitler
8note•2mo ago
what about not-believing something from the Ukranian government makes Putin more trustworthy?
TurkishPoptart•2mo ago
consumer451•2mo ago
I know that Ukraine has a complicated history with our country. I also believe that Ukraine is currently fighting for freedom and democracy in Europe.
Oddly enough, nothing better states my feelings than this Russian language music video, by a group who is now banned in Russia. IC3PEAK nailed it, and risked their lives in doing so. Please take less than three minutes to watch it with subs on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqohApD6Ng8 [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pac...
[1] Previous discussion, possibly the most upvoted music video on this website:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40027113
drysine•2mo ago
But somehow their heroes wear Nazi's symbols[0].
[0] https://www.lemonde.fr/videos/video/2025/06/18/guerre-en-ukr...
maximinus_thrax•2mo ago
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Utkin
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_National_Unity
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed_nationalism
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Imperial_Movement
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryno-Skachevsky_gang
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Organization_of_Russian...
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich_Group
drysine•2mo ago
Yeah, right. The truth.
Is it Stalin who forced Ukrainian nationalists to genocide Poles, Jews and also Armenians, Russians, Czechs and Georgians? [0] Looks like the genocidal ideology of Ukrainian nationalists aligned very well with genocidal ideology of German Nazis.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia...
maximinus_thrax•2mo ago