> Hypersonics beat the defense by flying faster. ICBMs go hypersonic speeds. These "hypersonic" weapons don't fly a ballistic trajectory and are therefore:

> Hypersonics beat the defense by flying faster. ICBMs go hypersonic speeds. These "hypersonic" weapons don't fly a ballistic trajectory and are therefore: - Easy to discriminate from ICBMs (e.g. potentially not start a nuclear war if you need a conventional "fast" weapons). - Later/harder detectable, because they fly lower it can be more difficult to detect them. - More manoeuvrable. - Harder to intercept, an ICBM doesn't always fly at top speed, and travels in a predictable arc. - Fancy / cool sounding, other countries have them, so none of the major players want to feel left out.