An isolated air-defence ship facing a mass raid may depend on electronic warfare spoofing enough threats to leave missiles available for the remaining attackers. Calling a weapon hypersonic does not explain whether it reaches that speed throughout its flight or only during one part. The comparison here places the lower threshold around Mach 5 or Mach 7 and treats Mach 20 as a much more extreme proposition than a ballistic arrival around Mach 7. The forecast discounts Mach 20 attacks within the next ten years apart from hypothetical space-based kinetic weapons. These speed estimates underpin a criticism of inflated performance claims that prevent a useful assessment of fleet defence.
Notable Point · 6:06-8:35
Hypersonic labels can obscure the real threat
Electronic warfare and missile stocks matter in a mass raid, while a hypersonic label alone says too little about a weapon's flight profile.