Missiles are advancing so quickly that their names need to change, report finds

Missiles are developing so quickly that the old conventions for naming them no longer suffice, according to a new report, which suggests scrapping catchall descriptors like cruise, ballistic and hypersonic and moving to a more precise taxonomy for characterizing both U.S. and foreign missiles.

The report from the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit space research corporation in California, argues that the boundaries between the established categories of missiles are blurring as technology advances, and in many cases blurred many years ago, underscoring the “need for more nuanced distinctions.”

Watch The Space Policy Show: The Modern Missile Threat to learn more.

Authors: Robert S. Wilson, Steve Dunham