[yabones]

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.

[techdragon]

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.

[the_third_wave]

They can not be shot down (yet).

[apple4ever]

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)

[profile53]

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.