Hypersonic Missile Nonproliferation: Hindering the Spread of a New Class of Weapons

Abstract

Hypersonic missiles - specifically, hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles - are a new class of threat able to penetrate most missile defenses and to further compress the timelines for a response by a nation under attack. Such missiles are being developed by the United States, Russia, and China. Their proliferation beyond these three nations could result in lesser powers setting their strategic forces on hair-trigger states of readiness and more credibly being able to threaten attacks on major powers. There is probably less than a decade available to substantially hinder the proliferation process. To this end, this report makes specific recommendations for actions by the United States, Russia, and China, as well as by the broader international community.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1085823

Entities

People

  • Carrie A. Lee
  • George Nacouzi
  • Richard H. Speier
  • Richard M. Moore

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Boundary Layer
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Defense Industry
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Heat Transfer
  • Hypersonic Aircraft
  • Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
  • Hypersonic Glide Vehicles
  • Prompt Global Strike
  • Spacecraft
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics