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Op-Ed: The new arms race — Hypersonic missiles and the doomsday racket

These things are much more fun than nuclear missiles, and Russia, the US, China and India are building them. It’s a sort of club for demented people who like to make trillions of dollars.

The definition of “hypersonic” is Mach 5 or better. That’s six times the speed of sound, and it’s faster than anything except actual spacecraft. Missiles traveling at this speed can and will penetrate defence systems.
The problem is that hypersonic is more than a game changer. This type of system will also generate massive logistics, new systems, and countermeasures. If you remember the tortuous thinking which the ICBMs, nuclear deterrents, Star Wars, and ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) systems caused, we’re in for another dose of learning curves.
The hypersonic systems search has been going on since the early 60s. The U.S. had a thing called Dyna Soar, and various X series test craft. China has the new Hypersonic Glide Vehicle, called Wu 14, mounted on new, more evasive, and stealthier ICBMs.
The new generation of possibly-humanity-exterminating party tricks includes Mach 10 targetable warheads, and the endearingly named “time sensitive” ability to hit exposed targets. These warheads are carried by the ICBMs, and can act as conventional or nuclear guided missiles.
The US is working on its own system which means hitting any target on Earth within an hour. That system is currently having a few problems, notably getting in to the air, but so did the original space program. It’s not a question of whether, but when, the tested combat system goes in to operation.
Experts so far have figured out that one of the problems of hypersonic weapons is that when used they could be construed as a nuclear attack. There’s no way of knowing whether they’re cruise missiles or nukes. That means that a conventional attack could get a nuclear response, “on principle.”
Hypersonic strategy – Another ball game
There’s a further issue — Hypersonic weapons also allow a lot more flexibility than the more ponderous existing systems. Many countries would see them as a good option as a definite strike capacity and therefore as a deterrent. More aggressive nations might see them as a useful way to threaten other nations. Check out the basics of hypersonic weapons systems, and you can see why they’re so likely to be popular.
The logic of Cold War weapons may not be familiar to some readers, so here’s a quick overview:
• The mere existence of some weapons systems breeds counter systems.
• These weapons systems are huge money contracts. They make the world a lot less safe, but they’re extremely profitable.
• Typically, these heavy duty weapons become instruments of global policy for the nations which have them.
• The nations react to each other automatically, like the USSR vs USA arms race which eventually bankrupted the USSR.
• Nations which use these weapons remain committed to them. There still are quite enough nukes around to exterminate all life on Earth, many times over.

The problem is that this is no longer 1960. Weapons systems, guidance systems and technology have come a long way since then. Strategies have also changed. The Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine of the 1970s, insane as it was and as it seems now, is no longer mutual or assured.
Someone might be prepared to launch a micro nuke on one of these systems. Much more likely, however, is the option to launch a hail of targeted hypersonic conventional weapons. These things would be like intercontinental machine guns, striking with cruise-like power.
The result of strikes of this kind would be what’s called “escalation.” To counteract heavy strikes of conventional weapons, the next escalation is to the nuclear level. A conventional war could become nuclear in a matter of minutes.
The current scare scenario — more crap from Nutcases R Us International
The apparently much-longed-for New Cold War between the US and someone is supposedly going to be based on the new weapons systems. The US hasn’t had a real opponent since the USSR went down, so demand for planet-destroying knickknacks is down. That’s bad, in case you were wondering.
China, which is the major supplier for US corporations and a major financial party/competitor/partner with the US, seems to be the preferred opponent. Russia’s no fun as an opponent any more. They keep winning standoffs, and don’t go broke like they used to. They swiped the Crimea and didn’t give it back.
China, on the other hand, makes products that generate enormous profits for US corporations. China even owns US government bonds and invests in US companies. How much more of a reason for a war could you possibly want? You could kill your major suppliers and your major investors at the same time, you geniuses, you.
If you’re under 40, you also need to know that this type of counter-sane logic is normal when discussing weapons of this type. If you’re going to build these weapons, you need a reason to spend that sort of money. You also accidentally make every damn jerk on the planet who sticks their hands out for a part of the racket extremely rich in the process.
Therefore, you need a threat to justify your generosity. Anything will do. Grandmothers, butterflies, you name it. In the 60s, if it could be called communist it was a legitimate threat to corporate balance sheets and a justification for spending more money on weapons and the military than anything else in human history on a global basis.
The best way to preserve the peace was to kill everybody. The Vietnam War was based on that logic. So has every war since.
World War Three, which seems to have been stuck in traffic for some time, is also based on the theory that human extinction is a small price to pay for corporate liquidity and smugness. As people flicker into radioactive dandruff and blow away on the hideous thermals, they’ll realize that.
Anyway, here it is, folks, the new technology which will result in more trillions spent on everything but people. Congratulations, guys, you’ve now achieved hyper-idiocy, as well as hypersonic weapons.

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Written By

Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.

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