Make Hypersonic Defense a Priority.

• Author: Krasner, James
• Position: EMERGING TECHNOLOGY HORIZONS

Picture a U.S. carrier battle group operating in the South China Sea. At the center of this fleet is a Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The ship has more than 70 aircraft onboard and cost the United States $13 billion to construct.

It has multiple layers of protection, including a screen of Aegis-equipped warships and a combat air patrol of jet fighters, supported by an E-2 airborne early warning aircraft.

Suddenly, explosions rock the carrier. A volley of hypersonic impactors has struck the ship from different directions. They were detected far too late for any meaningful defensive measures to be activated. At best, the carrier is now heavily damaged and must depart the combat zone to make repairs.

The loss of a carrier's capability in the opening stages of a conflict would hinder the U.S. military's ability to operate in the area, perhaps decisively. This is a central concern for U.S. strategic planners. It is also cited as an example of the value of hypersonic weapons technology.

Yet it is important to remember that the lesson of this scenario is not the capabilities of hypersonic weapons, but the threat posed by them. The ability to place carriers at risk could affect future defense posture and raise doubts among allies and adversaries alike about U.S. resolve.

Hypersonic weapons are tactical weapons with strategic implications. As such, the development of defenses or countermeasures against hypersonic weaponry is as important to U.S. military power as hypersonic weapons themselves--if not more so.

Despite this, the Defense Department is requesting for fiscal year 2023 almost 20 times as much for offensive hypersonic systems as for hypersonic defense, according to the Congressional Research Service. This gives far too little funding to defensive systems, given U.S. security needs.

Weapon systems that disrupt the status quo are usually more harmful to the stronger power. Over the past half-century, the United States and its allies have built up an almost unassailable advantage in conventional capabilities. Recent operations have given U.S. adversaries plenty of opportunity to identify vulnerabilities. Having put some hypersonic systems into service in recent years--with Russia claiming to have used theirs in combat in Ukraine --they clearly feel that hypersonic weapons provide a cost-effective way of countering that superiority.

History shows that the ability to defend against or neutralize a new weapon is often of great...