Protecting the Homeland: A Layered Defense Against Hypersonic Threats

Hypersonic threats compress intercept windows to under 15 minutes. The U.S. must build a layered missile defense architecture—but the hardest challenges aren't technical, they're integration, governance, and allied cooperation. This whitepaper from Aviation Week's Space Tech Expo Roundtable Series examines how space-based sensors and AI-enabled data fusion close the detection gap against maneuvering hypersonic threats, explores anti-spoofing vulnerabilities and the 15-minute decision window that defines success or failure, and reveals why international partnerships unlock geography, critical materials, and launch infrastructure that no budget can buy. Sponsored by Siemens.

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