[fruser1]

ICBMs have been flying at “hypersonic” speeds for decades now. Why the hoopla?

[null and void]

Hypersonic on a ballistic trajectory translates into a half hour or so of radar tracking time.

Hypersonic at a few 10s of thousands of feet above ground level means that an incoming warhead shows up on radar over the horizon with only a few minutes or seconds before impact.

Not much time to verity it’s really incoming, decide to activate interceptors, get a valid targeting solution, and fire away.

[Openurmind]

Exactly, And they are not cheap. This is just a whole lot of chest bumping when we know neither is really going to throw a blow. Can’t afford to, all “the old stuff” already in stock will work just fine to wipe everyone off the map.

[House Atreides]

ICBMs have been flying at “hypersonic” speeds for decades now. Why the hoopla?
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Susceptibility to successful interception. That will be the main difference between the ICBMs and the new delivery vehicles.

[Vermont Lt]

Because the hypersonic weapons are not nukes. I guess you can put one on them...but they are so fast that traditional anti missile systems cannot respond. So...the chance of one flying up Broadway is higher.

[Svartalfiar]

ICBMs have been flying at “hypersonic” speeds for decades now. Why the hoopla?

ICBMs exit the atmosphere and that's the only reason they can go hypersonic. The huge issue is the physics of going hypersonic within the atmosphere. Which is why there's almost nothing around that can do this - it takes quite a lot of physics research and testing.