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by am_lu 1272 days ago
Aircraft carriers will be next when it comes to hot war. Drone swarms and hypersonic missiles just entered the game.
2 comments

What can hypersonic missiles do that wave-skimming anti-ship cruise missiles or ballistic missiles can't do? Carrier groups are certainly vulnerable, but I would think that their vulnerabilities are fairly well understood at this point.
Get there fast. From very far away. The over simplified example I see posted a lot is “Pearl Harbour at the push of a Button”. It’s completely ignoring any aspect of defence which while not a well developed situation yet, there are definitely technical capabilities that can be improved to offer some level of defence. But the concept is well conveyed, long range surprise attack capability is something a military will obviously want.
They can not be shot down (yet).
Probably because they can't actual fly yet either.

(That's a bit of a joke but hypersonic missiles have a lot of physics challenges to overcome before being viable)

Why not? As a layperson, I assume a CIWS could still fire into the flight path of one and knock it out of the air.
Well if drone swarms do prove their worth, how are you going to get the drones to where they need to be?

Is that thing not going to be an aircraft carrier?