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

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Missile type Typical speed (approx.) Notes
Subsonic cruise missile ~800–1,000 km/h Flies like a low, slow aircraft for stealth.
Supersonic cruise / anti‑ship ~2,000–3,000 km/h Uses higher speed to reduce reaction time.
Short‑range ballistic Several thousand km/h Reaches nearby targets quickly on steep arcs.
ICBM (midcourse) Up to ~24,000 km/h Cross‑continental flight in tens of minutes.
ICBM (re‑entry) ~22,000–29,000 km/h Warheads plunge back through atmosphere.
Hypersonic missile >6,100 km/h (Mach 5+) Combines extreme speed with maneuverability.
**TL;DR:** When people ask “how fast do missiles go,” the answer spans from about the speed of a jet airliner for some cruise missiles up to tens of thousands of km/h for intercontinental and hypersonic systems.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.