My understanding is that these missiles and the other hypersonics Russia developed in the late 2010s are different in kind, new technology, and basically unstoppable. It is claimed that this technology far surpasses what the United States has.This could be simply hype. If anyone knows of a commentary worth reading or listening to please send it along. But really, I'm not sure how anyone can know anything given that they were just introduced.
No, they are just ballistic missiles that have multiple warheads (MIRV). Russia launched these with what seems to be inert warheads as a warning as this sort of weapon is a escalation in terms of type of weapon hierarchy....not that it is a new type all together.
Ballistic missiles are common, they go way up above the Earths atmosphere then come back down in a parabolic arc. Basically man made meteors. They have existed since WW2. German V2 rockets would hit mach 4.5 on reentry. That was the entire rocket coming back down so there's lots of drag and they would only go up about 60 miles in alt.
ICBMs go up to 2800 miles in alt, come back down at tremendous speed, launch little smaller, low drag payload vehicles so you can fit more than one warhead on a missile. These things will do mach 23 on their way down. Been around since the 70s.
Hypersonic is a pointless term when the media discusses it talking about missiles. The actual gamechanger "hypersonic" is an airbreathing, atmospheric (non ballistic/flat trajectory) aircraft or land launched highly maneuverable missile. No one has these in operation. The US has many programs developing them, and just a single one of these programs exceeds the entire annual defense budget of Russia.
Making guided missiles that go very very fast is "easy" and have been around since the 50s. Having one that is air breathing so it gets significant range advantage over a normal solid rocket motor and the ability to maneuver at those speeds is hard.
These things are underneath the nose cone of ballistic missiles. The nose cone come off in orbit, then these are released and come down like meteors.