Quote:
Originally Posted by mugaliens
With a top velocity of Mach 2.8 and the A-6's sub-Mach top airspeed...
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AFAIK, long-range missiles usually "coast" for much of their flight, i.e. rocket burnout occurs long before most of them hit their targets. And of course, it's bleeding velocity every second that it's blundering through the atmosphere without propulsion. And any maneuvering would bleed even more. So it's theoretically possible that the missile was travelling a lot less than its top speed when it struck.