Assassination Weapon

The Christian Science Monitor has an article on the US Air Force looking at developing a mach 6+ hypersonic missile.

Though they bury the lede, they do get to the point:

"The [Air Force] today is looking for ways to become more relevant in the global war on terrorism beyond the smart bombs and the unmanned aerial vehicles it's already providing mainly in support of ground (counterinsurgency) operations," writes Guy Ben-Ari, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, in an e-mail.

In the fight against terrorism, the US's most-wanted, such as Mr. bin Laden, are essentially moving targets. If bin Laden wants to have a meeting with his top lieutenants, for example, it will be called at the last minute and be short, intelligence officials say. That leaves the US military a small window in which to strike, posing a challenge to commanders and intelligence officials at the Air Force, which often oversees such operations. One option is to have missile assets in the area of the target already, perhaps by basing a bomber squadron in that region. Last year, when the Air Force zeroed in on a building where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was meeting, it was able to get two F-16C Fighting Falcon jets near the target in time to get Mr. Zarqawi, considered the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

This is about the USAF creating a weapon intended for assassination in order to gain more relevance in what looks to be the dominant mode of conflict in the next few decades.