By Kurtis Archer | 2025-11-11

A pair of upcoming US hypersonics conferences reflects the growing Great Power focus on the development and application of this technology in the space domain, and on defending against adversary missiles of this type.

Hypersonic missiles combine the speed of ballistic missiles with the maneuverability of cruise missiles, and they are a maturing modern warfare technology.

They travel over five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere and can change direction mid-flight, evading traditional detection systems.

Russia claims it has used hypersonic missiles already in its war with Ukraine, and other nations are busy developing hypersonic capabilities.

"With rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, the United States and its allies need a non-nuclear deterrent capability," Castelion co-founder and CEO Bryon Hargis said earlier this year.

"Affordable, mass-produced hypersonic long-range strike weapons are required to build a decisive combat power advantage."

Amid the rise in hypersonic weapons, the space domain has emerged as a vital component of national defense strategy, Arun Kumar Sampathkumar wrote for Via Satellite News on February 20, 2024.

"Key space-faring nations like the United States, Russia and China are poised to develop innovative defense space assets and capabilities for dynamic space operations," he said.

These include space mobility, logistics, and on-orbit servicing to outmaneuver and deter other nations.

On November 12 and 13, the Hypersonic Innovation Conference 2025 in Huntsville, Alabama, will focus on the development of hypersonic weapons systems capable of defending against incoming missile attacks.

It will address advancements in missile defense, flight technology for hypersonics, and various strategic applications for these systems.

In December, the Next Generation Missiles and Hypersonics Summit in Reston, Virginia, will draw leaders from the Pentagon and all branches of the US military.

Together with representatives from industry, academia and allied governments, they will discuss where hypersonics capabilities are headed, and how the US plans to engage in defense against threats with advanced missile systems.

Layered defense systems

Hypersonics "combine the speed of ballistic missiles…with the lower altitude and maneuverability you usually see in... cruise missiles," said Center for Strategic and International Studies Missile Defense Project fellow Masao Dahlgren.

"By flying lower, maneuvering, it makes it harder to see these things at a distance, it leaves you less time to engage, less time to shoot them down, and that’s why they are a strategic priority right now," he said.

Contemporary ground-based missile defense architecture is largely built around radar that is optimized for picking up the ballistic threat, Dahlgren said during a SpaceNews panel discussion in March.

"For the hypersonic threat, for low-flying threats, that range decreases dramatically," he said. "And so, by moving sensors to space, by looking down, you’re able to get a much larger kind of line of sight to see further and to track them earlier."

Defense systems are organized with a layered approach that addresses the boost phase, glide phase and terminal phase of a missile's trajectory, AE Industrial Partners operating partner Reggie Brothers said during the discussion.

It is important to have an architecture that can detect, track and have multiple chances of intercepting the missile before it reaches its target, he said.

Missile defense systems are land-based and sea-based, and use both endo-atmospheric and exo-atmospheric missiles to counter threats.

Interception systems must be layered so there are multiple chances to intercept the threat, the panel members stressed.

Hypersonics are needed to stop hypersonics, so if a missile is traveling at Mach 5, the response system should optimally travel at Mach 15 – at least three times as fast as the hypersonic threat.

The commercial sector is working to develop "comprehensive suites of sensors" that can be easily deployed terrestrially or in space-based architectures, according to Orion Space Solutions president Chad Fish.

Increased threat from hypersonics

China and Russia have been moving ahead with hypersonics systems using technology developed in the US decades ago, Dahlgren warned.

Russia is using missiles exceeding Mach 10 in its war with Ukraine.

"China particularly has been investing heavily in this space," Brothers said, noting that this has been rolled out as a nationwide effort, supported and encouraged with Chinese government subsidies.

As China advances its hypersonics development, he cautioned, a new generation of US STEM students needs to focus on electromagnetics, communications, radio frequency, plasma physics and aeronautical engineering.

“We need more resources," he said, including to boost manufacturing. "If we want to actually be able to develop these things in volume at a reasonable price, we have to engage more of industry into this whole development process."

Test facilities are another critical component, he added, "because if we can’t rapidly test these things, if we can’t rapidly figure out what’s going right and what’s wrong, we can’t make the production."

Dahlgren said he believes hypersonics will serve as a model for how the United States and its allies need to work together.

Australia has promised the US a massive piece of land for testing, he noted, as well as wind tunnels with wait times shorter than US developers are used to.

Typical lead time for range safety approval of a new vehicle is 16 to 24 months for test flights on a US range, the panelists said, noting that the industry needs to push for making these approvals happen faster.

Developing low-cost hypersonics

In January, Castelion -- a US startup led by former SpaceX executives -- announced it has raised $100 million to develop low-cost hypersonic missiles.

The company said it hopes to establish a presence in the hypersonic weapons market by applying private space industry practices to manufacturing, aiming for a market segment of higher-volume and lower-cost production.

During a March 23 SpaceNews webinar, Purdue Applied Research Institute president and CEO Mark Lewis said he believes the US needs to increase support for hypersonic missiles in light of the Chinese and Russian efforts.

"There’s a simple rule of thumb that says that a defender trying to stop an aggressor has to be about three times more maneuverable than the thing it’s trying to stop," he said. "So it’s technically challenging, but not impossible.”

Experts warn that with oppressive regimes such as China, Russia and Iran developing hypersonics of their own, the US must be diligent to not fall behind in the further development and application of this technology.

They advise that creating and expanding public-private partnerships -- always a US strong point -- will allow the US to stay competitive.