Hypersonic Glide Vehicles: Implications for Strategic Stability in the Coming Hypersonic Era

Hypersonic glide vehicles represent one of the first major strategic weapons developments since the end of the Cold War. These missiles, which are capable of carrying both nuclear and non-nuclear payloads threaten to alter the strategic balance of terror that has kept that great powers at peace since the late 1940's. Their maneuverability, speed, and altitude make them impervious to ballistic missile defences now and into the near future, ensuring the continued survival of an assured destruction capacity for the three great powers. Hypersonic glide vehicles foster a stable strategic balance; it should be no surprise that these weapons will most likely be neither controlled nor abandoned by the three great powers. It is likely these missiles will serve as the new basis for mutually assured destruction and the corresponding strategic stability between the great powers into the coming decades.