Hypersonic weapons travel above Mach 5 while maneuvering through the atmosphere, collapsing the warning time that underpinned Cold War stability. Unlike ballistic warheads, their flight paths are not easily predicted, which strains every existing missile-defence architecture.
The strategic consequence is psychological as much as technical: when leaders believe they have minutes rather than tens of minutes to respond, the incentives shift toward pre-delegation and automation — precisely the conditions that make miscalculation more likely.
Whoever fields credible terminal defences and resilient early-warning first will hold an outsized advantage, and the race is now as much about sensors and space-based tracking as about the missiles themselves.