Corinne Kramer

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Zoom link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94038928268

Abstract:

The Army, Navy, and Air Force are each developing hypersonic missiles—nonnuclear offensive weapons that fly faster than five times the speed of sound and spend most of their flight in the Earth’s atmosphere. Those missiles are intended to be maneuverable and capable of striking targets quickly (in roughly 15 minutes to 30 minutes) from thousands of kilometers away.

CBO’s analysis of the hypersonic weapons being developed by the U.S. military suggests that while hypersonic missiles are well-suited to operate outside potential adversaries’ anti-¬access and area-denial (A2/AD), or “keep-out,” zones, both hypersonic missiles and ballistic missiles equipped with maneuverable warheads could provide the combination of speed, accuracy, range, and survivability (the ability to reach a target without being intercepted) that would be useful in the military scenarios CBO considered. In addition, several technological challenges remain for development of hypersonic missiles, including management of the extreme heat that they are exposed to by traveling at high speeds in the atmosphere for most of their flight. Hypersonic missiles would probably not be more survivable than ballistic missiles with maneuverable warheads in a conflict, unless the ballistic missiles encountered highly effective long-range defenses, and are likely to cost one-third more than ballistic missiles of the same range with maneuverable warheads.

Bio:

Corinne Kramer is a Principal Analyst in the National Security Division of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). She focuses on technology issues, including hypersonic weapons and space systems. Prior to joining CBO in 2020, Corinne worked for ten years at the Institute for Defense Analyses. Corinne has a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University.