Hypersonic is the name of the game

There was a time when brute force won the war if just an army was involved. The bigger the better. Soon tactics and the latest weaponry gave one a tactical edge, especially when it came to things like gunpowder and cannons. During colonial rule, it was the age of the navies. During World War I, armies regressed to trench warfare. After this the battle tank changed warfare completely. The Nazis with the Luftwaffe ruled the skies. After World War II we entered the nuclear age.

This new age was scary, but also somewhat stable. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction was coined, and it was felt that no matter what, no two nuclear armed countries would attack each other. Indeed, no nuclear bomb exploded over civilian populations from 1945, the year of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the start of 2025.

But things have proved to be different as 2025 progressed.
1. India attacked a nuclear-powered Pakistan with fighter jets, missiles and drones, reportedly hitting two nuclear bases. Pakistan also retaliated against a nuclear-powered India. (The Kargil War was a border-based skirmish. When India attacked Balakot, Pakistan did not retaliate.
2. Ukraine attacked deep into Russian territory targeting nuclear bombers.
3. Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites even at the risk of radiation and a further revenge cycle in case of some N-sites being missed out.

A scary new age

What happened? Why is it suddenly game to hit nuclear targets and nuclear countries, something that was unthinkable a few years back. The reason for that is the rules of the game have changed yet again. Now it’s all about hypersonic missiles. These are described as at least Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound. It was reported that the Russians reached speeds of up to Mach 30.

This means that if your neighbouring country has a hundred nukes and you fire hundreds of hypersonic missiles at them along with other key targets, a war could be over in minutes. That is why India attacked Pakistan with such impunity and our enemy will currently be desperate and get their hands on hypersonic weapons. India is currently in an elite league which has them.

It is reported that Ukraine has been provided with hypersonic missiles by the West and that’s why Russia did not retaliate the Ukraine N-attack with hypersonic weapons. As far as Iran is considered, they sprung a surprise of their own with Fattah-1, an alleged hypersonic missile. While the Israelis have rubbished this claim, it is true that the Fattah breached Israeli defences for the first time on this scale and have probably changed the rules of the game.

What next tech can be expected in modern warfare remains to be seen.