quote:

And if shooting from above (from high-altitude aircraft or from space), there's always the problem of what's behind the target in case you miss. ("Oops, sorry about that laser damage to your city, Mr. Mayor.")

These missiles are supposed to be lower altitude, even terrain following (as much as mach8+ will allow) so I'm thinking any lasers will have to be ground or ship based. I would think that given the difficulty in putting a single laser on such a target, either a coordinated system or a multi-laser array would be necessary. And tracking from the ground would be a lot easier; the hard part would be having the damn thing to come close enough to the firing platform. That, or trying to digest the cost of hundreds of platforms.

I guess we also have the option of hypersonic missile interceptors, but at those speeds (possibly even head on closing speeds of 15X mach) the margin for error would be insane.