The development of U.S. and allied sensors to detect and track hypersonic missiles is key todeterring their use and to destroying them via directed energy systems, Vice Chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. John Hyten said on Oct. 28."The most important thing about defending yourself against hypersonics is not the weapon,"Hyten told the Defense Writers Group. "It is not building your own hypersonics. It's building asensor that can see hypersonics. Right now, we don't have real effective [sensors]. We can seesome hypersonics, usually in post-event data processing, but we need to have sensors that seehypersonics, just like we see ballistic missiles. To be honest, if you look at our ancient radararchitecture, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System--Distant Early Warning (DEW) way backin the day, that architecture is focused solely around ballistic missiles. That's what we do reallywell."
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