Notes That The 1960s Were Far Less Risk-Averse Than Today

Speeding ahead with the development of hypersonic weapons, both offensive and defensive, will require the Defense Department to look back to the 1960s — a time when it was far less risk-averse than it is now, the department's director of defense research and engineering for modernization said. "We need to be less risk-averse. And that doesn't mean we seek to maximize risk. But it also means we're not afraid to take risks, or we're not afraid to fail, as long as they're what I term noble failures," Mark J. Lewis said during a discussion with Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute in Washington. The speed, maneuverability, and trajectories of hypersonic weapons will give whomev