Hypersonic weapons have recently attracted substantial attention and funding as an “emerging” missile technology, lauded for their ability to glide through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound and to adjust course during flight. But while many assume that these capabilities will yield operational advantages over alternative missile technologies, assessments rarely account for the physical limitations of hypersonic flight or the quantitative performance of hypersonic systems in realistic military scenarios. To address this gap, BRSL Senior Research Scholar Dr. Cameron Tracy led a team of researchers at BRSL (Justin Ly and Anita Ding) and MIT (Dr. David Wright) to develop the Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Simulator. This web application enables rapid, accessible modeling of hypersonic missile flight in a variety of realistic scenarios, helping users to understand and assess these weapons’ performance limitations, and global security implications.

Read the detailed simulator user manual here: 

Quantification of Hypersonic Missile Capabilities using the Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Simulator

Dr. Cameron Tracy, Dr. David Wright, Justin Ly, Anita Ding

Berkeley Risk and Security Lab, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For additional resources on hypersonic missile technologies and their security implications please see:

Acton, “Hypersonic Boost-Glide Weapons, ” Science & Global Security 23 (2015)

C.L. Tracy, D. Wright, “Modeling the performance of hypersonic boost-glide missiles,” Science & Global Security 28 (2020)

Wright, C.L. Tracy, “Hypersonic weapons: Vulnerability to missile defenses and comparison to MaRVs,” Science & Global Security 31 (2023)

Wright, C.L. Tracy, “Hypersonic cruise missiles,” Science & Global Security 32 (2024)

Sanchez, “The Counter-Silo Capabilities of Conventional Prompt Strike Weapons,” Science & Global Security 33 (2025)

C.L. Tracy, “Technological surprise and normalization through use: The tactical and discursive effects of new precision strike weapons in the Russo-Ukrainian War,” Texas National Security Review 9 (2026)