00:00Just about every ship in the United States Navy that can shoot a hypersonic missile will be homeported in Hawaii by 2030.
00:08That includes all three Zumwalt-class destroyers and eventually some submarines.
00:13Will it be enough to make China think twice about trying to take Taiwan?
00:20I think it's a good step.
00:22I think it is because these hypersonic missiles, they right now don't have, and by they, I mean any nation, a defense against them.
00:31Not just because of their speed up to Mach 22, according to the Russian version, and even some 29s, they say, at that Mach 5, but also the maneuverability of the glide ones.
00:43That's retired Admiral and former U.S. Congressman Joe Sestak.
00:47At one time, he was the commander of the George Washington Carrier Strike Group.
00:52He says hypersonics are amazing weapons.
00:55Not only fast, but maneuverable.
00:57Hypersonics give militaries a chance to hit targets from very far away before an enemy has time to react or reposition.
01:06And like the Admiral says, the missiles can maneuver at Mach speeds, meaning most modern defenses cannot stop them.
01:14More on that later.
01:16Sestak says he's glad to see the Navy sending the hypersonic armed Zumwalt to Hawaii.
01:20However, since each boat can only carry 12 hypersonics apiece, that isn't exactly going to stop an invasion force should China launch one.
01:30If I was the commander of the 7th Fleet, yes.
01:34I would like to have a couple hundred of those.
01:38Because assuredly, you are going to have miscues.
01:41Assuredly, the network is going to go down.
01:45And it might only go down in one place, but not the other.
01:48So redundancy of this would be critical, I think.
01:51On that front, the Navy says it's also planning to homeport in Hawaii an additional two, possibly three, Virginia-class attack submarines.
02:01Each submarine outfitted to carry up to 12 hypersonic missiles.
02:06Work is already underway to upgrade the facilities at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to accommodate the Zumwaltz and the upgraded subs.
02:14The Navy's conventional prompt-strike hypersonic missile does not have as cool of a name as the U.S. Army's Dark Eagle, but it's basically the same weapon, just made for maritime use.
02:26The U.S. Army showcased the Dark Eagle during this summer's talisman saber exercises in Australia.
02:32Which sort of brings us to the next point.
02:35When would the U.S. use its hypersonic missiles?
02:39Admiral Sestak says there's basically two scenarios where he sees them as an option.
02:43If China tries to put a blockade around Taiwan, or if China launches an outright amphibious invasion with dozens, maybe hundreds, of smaller vessels.
02:54In either event, the U.S. will have a limited supply of the first-strike hypersonics.
03:00So picking the right targets will be a key to victory.
03:04Because really the strategic ones to take out will be those that potentially could be on the homeland of China.
03:15If they're going after Taiwan, that makes us the first to strike the other nation.
03:20So a decision is going to have to make here of what do you take out some of those strategic assets like the ports from whence the small LCM-like vessels are coming.
03:32And the Chinese are building a brand new class of them, maybe 50 to 100 guys on each, to go across that 100 kilometers of straights very quickly.
03:40You're not going to be able to pickle them all off with 36 of these.
03:44So do you take that port?
03:46Or do you aim it on the major surface combatants that they will have out there protecting them with some sort of shield around them?
03:54Of which it's not going to be good enough probably for the next decade to protect against these.
03:59He's right. Currently, there really isn't a widely deployed, effective defense against hypersonic weapons, neither on the U.S. side of the equation nor her adversaries.
04:11But that cat-and-mouse game between missiles and missile defense could be evening out soon.
04:16The Japanese are making significant strides on ship-mounted electromagnetic railguns that fire bolts of metal.
04:24Israeli-based Rafael says its iron beam laser system is ready for wide-scale deployment, and the company is working with Lockheed Martin to field a maritime version as well.
04:36And since Zumwaltz are the most technologically advanced ships in the U.S. fleet, Seastack says they are perfect candidates to field laser defense weapons, giving the once-blind Zumwaltz a formidable one-two punch.
04:51And that to have that missile defense capability that truly can handle anything, ballistics or hypersonics, that they were envisioning, that would be an awesome capability to bring about along with the hypersonics that you're defending, not just these three ships, but for surety that carry a battle group.
05:11Regardless of how, when, or if the U.S. ever uses its hypersonics in a fight, one thing is for sure, they will not be the only weapons flying for freedom that day.
05:24Hypersonics will play a significant part of a layered battle plan, but they are just one part.
05:30For more reporting like this, download the Straight Arrow News app today.
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