Hypersonics is such a bullshit term that means literally nothing. Patriot can hit hypersonics, it was built to hit hypersonic weapons, because most big boy threats have been hypersonic for a long while now. What people really are worried about are smart, hypermanuverable weapons like it's fucking Ace Combat, of which not even the US can get working at hypersonic speeds thanks to the current limitations of material science. That said, there is some worry about extremely low flying air-breathing RAM jet type hypersonics. These can be a legitimate threat to ships, albeit the current mechanisms in place can, theoretically, deal with them. Doubly so since stealth-hypersonics are so ludicrously expensive and nearly impossible for everybody NOT the US to even think about trying.
You know what I mean, though. The new doctrine that the US, China, and Russia are trying out with missiles is speed uber alles. Making Ace Combat drones or fighters is harder than making a rocket that goes super fucking fast. As for materials science, the US government is doing some very interesting stuff at Argonne National Lab, the National Renewable Energy Lab, and the US Naval Research Lab. I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the money earmarked for "renewables research" within the Department of Energy was meant to have downstream military applications.
Your point about stealth hypersonics is dead-on: neither China nor Russia has the money to build these things and, even when the US does produce them, we only make a handful because they're wicked expensive even for us.
The US government did some pretty whacky shit with materials science in the old Watertown Arsenal until the 1980's, most of which is still classified, and a lot of which gave a lot of locals mega-cancer, but that's more a factoid than anything else. It's still a superfund site.
IIRC, even though we do have anti-ICBM systems, we have so few of them that they would be ineffective in an actual nuclear shootout. I'm guessing the golden dome system would involve building much more of them.
That's sort of the problem. The main problem is Russia has thousands of warheads, they can always build more (the Soviets had an estimated 40,000 total in 1986), and at a certain point there is nothing you can do from a defensive perspective. Russia has the ~5,500 nukes in its current stockpile because that's more than enough to fucking annihilate the US if need be.
I guess it's a chicken or the egg thing. I used to know a guy who worked on the anti-ICBM systems developed by Raytheon. All I asked him was "well, does it work?" He said yeah, the system works, but not if Russia throws its entire nuclear arsenal at us all at once. It's capable of shooting down a few missiles from North Korea or Iran, but we can kiss our ass goodbye if Russia decides to send us their love. I think what Trump is doing is trying to upgrade the existing missile defense "infrastructure" (for a lack of better words) to put China on notice that its smaller stockpile isn't as toothy as it once was. Or maybe I'm a retard? I've been wrong before and this wouldn't be the last time, either.
Notice how Russia isn't making a stink about Golden Dome? All it
did say was this could start an arms race in space and possibly violate the Space Treaty of 1967... which the US and Russia are signatories of. Then, a day later, they walked back the criticism. I don't think Russia cares because it still has its giant nuclear arsenal.
Unironically, look at the gays to see where 'consequence free' sex gets you as a culture. And it's a hard discussion, because yeah I think people should be able to choose (not in the abortion sense, different topic) when they are ready for kids, and kids are a big fucking responsibility so one should really think about it. But, without consequences to sex it becomes less important to people when it is really important not just for procreation, but for maintaining a healthy relationship with your partner and your own body.
Like all things it comes down to personal responsibility, a rarer thing these days it seems.
Listen, I'm not saying it's a great idea to go around having sex willy nilly without consequences. What I'm saying is that, at this point in the US, an unwanted pregnancy is completely avoidable. I expect people to have some personal responsibility. Use protection. Take the pill. Fuck her in the ass, I don't know, but everyone knows what happens when you jizz inside a woman's cunt and I do not feel sorry in the slightest for full-grown adults who suddenly have to face the consequences of their actions. If a complete idiot like me can figure out how to avoid an unwanted pregnancy, then anyone can do it.
so my opinion on them is lower out of the gate.
