It quotes Dr. Lin as saying, wisely: "I think it's important to remember that diplomacy works and policy solutions work"I think another tool in our toolbox isn't just to invest in more weapons, but it's also to invest in diplomacy to develop community."
The Aviation Week & Space Technology article begins: "As the U.S. hypersonic weapons strategy tilts toward valuing a quantity approach, the new focus for top defense plannerseven as a four-year battery of flight testing beginsis to create an industrial base that can produce missiles affordably enough that the high-speed weapons can be purchased in volumes of hundreds or even thousands."
It continues: "To pave the way for an affordable production strategy, the Pentagon's Research and Engineering division has teamed up with the Acquisition and Sustainment branch to create a 'war room' for the hypersonic industrial base, says Mark Lewis, director of research and engineering the modernization."
The piece then quotes Lewis as saying: "At the end of the day, we have to be careful we're not building boutique weapons. If we build boutique weapons, we won'twe'll be very reluctant touse them. And that again factors into our plans for delivering hypersonics at scale."
The article says that "Air Force and defense officials have been promoting concepts for operating air-launched hypersonic missiles in swarm attacks. The B-1B [bomber], for example, will be modified to carry" six hypersonic missiles.
"I think it's a poorly posed question to ask about affordability per unit," the piece quoted Lewis as saying. "We have to think of it in terms of the affordability of the capability that we're providing. By that I mean: If I've got a hypersonic system that costs twice as much as its subsonic counterpart but is five times more effective, well, clearly, that's an advantageous cost scenario."
The hypersonic missiles will indeed likely be "invincible." And they would be at the ready because of the withdrawal by the Trump administration of the INF treaty and other international arms control agreements, one after another.
With the vast numbers of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles being sought, the world will have fully returned to the madness in the depths the Cold Waras presented in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Apocalypse will be highly likely. Artificial intelligence is not going to save us. These weapons need to be outlawed, not produced and purchased en masse. And we must, indeed, "invest in diplomacy to develop community"a global community at peace, not a world of horrific and unstoppable war.
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