Hypersonic missiles may be unstoppable. Is society ready?

Hypersonic represents a new frontier of missile warfare: fast, stealthy, and unpredictable in flight. The U.S. recently tested a prototype that puts it in a race with China and Russia to claim a capability that adds another layer of uncertainty to geopolitical competition, not least because of the complex computational systems on which hypersonic weapons rely. Put simply, the assumptions of conventional missile warfare – that incoming attacks can be tracked and intercepted, and a proportionate response be weighed – don't transfer easily to hypersonic weapons because they are so fast and stealthy. That means a greater reliance on artificial intelligence to track and respond, raising ethical questions about how such systems are programmed. Even if it's not all dictated by AI, "there is going to be an awful lot of automation and that kind of decision chain to deal with these kinds of systems," says Douglas Barrie, a military aerospace analyst in London.