Re: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise
Now, how about Russia's unrivalled Topol-M and Iskander-M ICBMs, with their silo, vehicle, sea, air and submarine launch variants, and 3 independently manuverable hypersonic warheads -- a new era of arms race brought about by the PNAC's (pronounced P-Nazis).
I like the air version. Launched from a stealth bomber, they shoot up into space, where things travel at 250,000 mph (no friction), and re-enter the atmosphere above their target with evasive manuvers and decoys to avoid interception.
"SS-27 (Topol-M) ICBM and the SS-NX-30 (Bulava) SLBM pick up speed so fast upon launch that early warning systems monitoring the Earth’s surface from space do not have enough time to take appropriate countermeasures. He adds that these weapons are not “strictly ballistic” in their trajectories. They begin the midcourse phase ballistically, but can dive unexpectedly or maneuver to avoid destruction. In the terminal phase, both accelerate to hypersonic speeds that are beyond the limits of all operational and most future anti-missile defenses."