'Impossible to intercept': This is Russia's new deadly weapon (CNN)

[ItsjustMe]

US officials confirm that Russia is the first country to use hypersonic missiles ever in combat.

[harumph]

1. Oh, the terror!

It's almost impossible to intercept a greased pig, but we do, and then we eat them.

[Gore1FL]

3. I am less worried about the plane-launched ones.

I suspect if there were conflict, NATO would have air supremacy before many or any were launched, save a Russian first-strike of them.

[Gore1FL]

2. The use of this weapon in Ukraine puzzles me a bit.

There really is no need for it. It's an expensive way to do what they should have been able to achieve with much simpler weapons.

In my mind, this means:
1> They are trying to show off the weapon.
2> They are taking this as an opportunity to test the weapon.
3> They have already expended all of the readily-available cheaper missiles.

Other than some combinations of the above, does anybody else have any other reasons that I missed?

[RainCaster]

4. I think it's nonsense

It's a fake. Russia has no budget for such research and tech. If so, they would have better tires on their trucks.

[orwell]

5. This is a lot of "hype"...

...this is part of a 1980's ballistic missile strapped to the undercarriage of a plane.

Anything that travels Mach 5 or greater is "hypersonic."

Every ICBM is "hypersonic."

The Space Shuttle could re-enter at Mach 25, so it was "hypersonic."

Russia scored a big PR win with this bullshit ploy.

It is not important if something is "hypersonic."

It is important how accurate it is, how radar and infrared invisible it is, and whether it carries conventional warheads or nuclear warheads. If they are nuclear, they can't be used unless you want to start global annihilation. If they conventional, they have to be very accurate.

Nobody to date has a very accurate, radar and infrared invisible, conventional hypersonic missile.