how fast do missiles go
Missiles can travel anywhere from a few hundred miles per hour to well over 15,000 miles per hour, depending on the type of missile and its role in warfare.
Basic speed ranges
- Short‑range / many anti‑air missiles: Often around or above the speed of sound, roughly 1,200–3,700 km/h (about Mach 1–3), so they reach nearby targets in seconds.
- Typical cruise missiles: Many fly at high subsonic or low supersonic speeds, around 800–1,100 km/h (similar to a jet airliner) up to about 2,000–3,000 km/h for faster designs.
- Ballistic missiles (like ICBMs): During the midcourse phase in space, they can reach around 24,000 km/h (about 15,000 mph), with re‑entry speeds on the order of 22,000–29,000 km/h.
- Hypersonic missiles: Defined as flying faster than Mach 5, they can exceed about 6,100 km/h (3,800 mph), and some modern systems aim for considerably higher speeds.
Types of missiles and example speeds
Here’s an approximate overview in simple categories:
- Cruise missiles
- Fly like small pilotless aircraft using jet engines.
- Commonly subsonic (around 800–1,000 km/h), with some supersonic variants exceeding the speed of sound.
- Ballistic missiles
- Launched powerfully upward, then coast in a high arc through or above the atmosphere.
- Long‑range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) can travel thousands of kilometers, reaching tens of thousands of km/h in midcourse, then plunging back at extremely high speed during re‑entry.
- Hypersonic weapons
- Includes hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles.
- Travel at speeds above Mach 5 (over 6,000 km/h), combining high speed with maneuverability, which makes them very hard to intercept and gives defenders only a few minutes to react over regional ranges.
Why speeds differ so much
- Mission:
- Long‑range strategic missiles prioritize extreme speed to cross continents in under an hour.
* Some cruise missiles trade speed for stealth and low‑altitude flight, staying slower to avoid radar.
- Propulsion:
- Rocket‑powered ballistic missiles accelerate intensely early, then coast in space.
* Jet or ramjet‑powered cruise and hypersonic missiles maintain high speed with sustained thrust.
- Altitude and drag:
- High‑altitude or exo‑atmospheric flight reduces air resistance, allowing higher maximum speeds.
Small HTML table of example ranges
| Missile type | Typical speed (approx.) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Subsonic cruise missile | ~800–1,000 km/h | Flies like a low, slow aircraft for stealth. | [9][10]
| Supersonic cruise / anti‑ship | ~2,000–3,000 km/h | Uses higher speed to reduce reaction time. | [8][9]
| Short‑range ballistic | Several thousand km/h | Reaches nearby targets quickly on steep arcs. | [6][3]
| ICBM (midcourse) | Up to ~24,000 km/h | Cross‑continental flight in tens of minutes. | [7][3]
| ICBM (re‑entry) | ~22,000–29,000 km/h | Warheads plunge back through atmosphere. | [7]
| Hypersonic missile | >6,100 km/h (Mach 5+) | Combines extreme speed with maneuverability. | [10][1]
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.