(Continued from Part I)

However, three countries namely China, U.S and Russia are currently in possession of hypersonic weapons or technology but only Russia has made its way to deploying one, that too in the combat role in Ukrainian airspace, only recently.

Let's take a look at the major hypersonic weapons being developed by Russia so far:

> Avangard: Avangard is a long-range boost-glide vehicle, its glider likely re-enters the atmosphere at around 20 times the speed of sound or Mach 20 and is designed to deliver both conventional and nuclear warheads against its adversaries.

>Kinzhal: Kinzhal (dagger) hypersonic missile is the one doing the rounds these days and is reportedly being used in the Ukrainian invasion. It is a guided ballistic missile that can be launched from aircraft, it probably travels at half the speed of Avangard i.e Mach 10 having a range of 1200 miles, capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads.

> Zircon: Zircon is a scramjet-powered anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile undergoing production in Russia and is the latest addition in the hypersonic weapons fleet of Russia after Avangard and Kinzhal, it flies so fast and low -- at speeds of up to Mach 9 and a low atmospheric-ballistic trajectory -- that it can penetrate traditional anti-missile defence systems.

It has a range of around 600 miles and has been successfully test-fired in the past few years and is currently under production.

But why use a weapon this expensive and one which has never been battle-tested anywhere across the world?

The most likely answer to this is that conflicts are used as testing grounds for new weapons under real conditions. Typical test data can be stroked but in combat, there is only success or failure.

It is this kind of testing that is worthwhile as successes can be leveraged and failures can be quickly fixed.

What impact does the use of these missiles have on the ongoing war?

Russia's use of the hypersonics in Ukraine does nothing more than raising the stakes and re-establishing the lost momentum in the hope to make Ukraine bend on its knees and surrender to the Russian whims.