In September 2020, Forward Defense Assistant Director Christian Trotti and Nonresident Senior Fellow Tate Nurkin were interviewed on hypersonic weapons by Defense & Aerospace Report‘s Vago Muradian. During the interview, Trotti and Nurkin discussed the key insights from Forward Defense’s recent Primer on Hypersonic Weapons in the Indo-Pacific Region, while further exploring essential issues such as:
- the military utility of hypersonic weapons in alternative applications;
- the significance of hypersonic weapons across the conventional and nuclear rungs of the escalation ladder;
- the quantity and mass necessary to achieve strategic and operational effects in wartime; and
- the imperative to build a defense-industrial base that can produce these weapons at scale.
What intrigues me most about them… is not necessarily a nuclear strike… but more their utility in fast-moving contingencies and conventional operations…
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Forward Defense leads the Atlantic Council’s US and global defense programming, developing actionable recommendations for the United States and its allies and partners to compete, innovate, and navigate the rapidly evolving character of warfare. Through its work on US defense policy and force design, the military applications of advanced technology, space security, strategic deterrence, and defense industrial revitalization, it informs the strategies, policies, and capabilities that the United States will need to deter, and, if necessary, prevail in major-power conflict.
Image: Image credit: DARPA
