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fancyfredbottoday at 9:23 AM4 repliesview on HN

For many many reasons this engine only has one economic application - delivery of a nuclear payload in a way which is very hard for missile defences to stop.

ICBMs can go faster than this already but as I understand it they go higher allowing for earlier detection and they follow a more predictable trajectory which makes interception more realistic.

I find super fast missiles far scarier than advanced AI. I suppose they maintain the "mutually assured destruction" which might be the main reason there hasn't been a nuclear war since WW2, but it's not a huge comfort.


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octaanetoday at 12:26 PM

My take is also a missile, but as an interceptor, not offensive purposes. North Korea has shown that they can deliver a payload to Japan if they want. If the NKs do decide to launch something at Japan, it's not going to be tipped with conventional explosives. It'll be a nuke. Hypersonic interceptor seems the more likely application is this tech to me.

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b65e8bee43c2ed0today at 11:33 AM

judging by what we saw so far in Russia, Ukraine, and Israel, defensive missiles don't require particularly sophisticated offensive missiles to overwhelm.

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newscluestoday at 10:44 AM

I find fast missiles with AI to be pretty scary. Heck a slow drone with AI targeting chasing me is bad enough...

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emptyfiletoday at 9:48 AM

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