Yes, we do need something different than the ballistic missile defenses of the past, because

that was designed for a different problem.

The good news is we can adapt that and adapt our air defenses to contend with it.

It may be that they become predominant, if the characteristic of hypersonic weapons become much more prolific and dominant in the spectrum of missiles that the military is armed themselves with.

But at the end of the day, these are just missiles.

This is what great power competition looks like, is there going to be urgency to procuring

certain kinds of capability.

Welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm John Ambo, editorial director at MWI,

and in this episode, we're tackling the subject of hypersonic weapons.

Russia has reportedly used hypersonic missiles recently against targets in Ukraine, and in March,

the United States successfully tested a hypersonic missile of its own, developed as part of a DARPA project.

So these weapons have really been the subject of pretty considerable public attention lately.

But what truly sets them apart beyond just velocity from existing missile technology.

Are they a game changer on the strategic landscape or are they better understood as just the next

evolutionary step in missile development?

What implications do they have from a defense perspective?

My guest on this episode addresses those questions and more.

Tom Carrico is the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center

for Strategic and International Studies, and he joined me for this really fascinating conversation

that you're about to hear. Before we get to it, a couple quick notes. First, if you aren't

yet subscribed to the MWI podcast, you can find it wherever you get your podcast. And if you're

enjoying the podcast and have just a moment, please consider giving it a rating or leaving a review. It really helps new listeners to find us. And second,

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