US response to hypersonic weapons

 AP:

The U.S. will spend $1.3 billion to develop advanced satellites that will be able to better track hypersonic missile threats, the Pentagon said Monday, announcing two new contracts that will put the detection and tracking systems in orbit by 2025.

Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, said the contracts will provide 28 satellites, as the U.S. moves to greatly expand and enhance its ability to counter increasing threats from Russia and China.

Both countries have been making strides in their development of hypersonic missiles, which are more difficult to track and shoot down because they maneuver more in flight than conventional weapons that travel in predictable paths. Last year China tested what U.S. officials said was a hypersonic missile, and Russia has used the weapons in strikes during the war in Ukraine.

“Russia and China have been developing and testing hypersonic glide vehicles — these advanced missiles that are extremely maneuverable,” Tournear told Pentagon reporters Monday. “These satellites are specifically designed to go after that next generation version of threats out there so that we can detect and track these hypersonic maneuvering vehicles and predict their impact point.”
...

The speed of the hypersonic weapons also makes them difficult to shoot down.  It is not clear why Russia is using the weapons in Ukraine.  They could just be showing off or trying to intimidate.

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