Q&A · 2:40:33-2:42:25

Would hypersonic missiles make the battleship pointless?

A hypersonic weapon can damage the ship, but the operational question is how many costly missiles must penetrate layered defenses to sink it.

Question

Could modern hypersonic or widely available supersonic missiles simply destroy the battleship?

Short answer

They could damage or eventually sink it, but layered defense and subdivision should require a costly multi-missile attack rather than one automatic kill.

Notes

The answer rejects the standard that a ship is useless if some weapon can sink it, because that logic eliminates every navy. Armor, subdivision, defensive missiles, and redundancy are intended to turn a single hit into damage rather than immediate loss. The relevant measure is how many scarce, expensive weapons must be launched to obtain enough penetrations for a kill. An attacker must therefore allocate a larger and more expensive salvo, while firing at the ship in peacetime would itself trigger the conflict its presence is meant to deter.