> military does not have relatively silent supersonic flight
We have one plane—soon to be retired—that can supercruise, i.e. sustain supersonic flight without afterburners, the F-22 [1]. It’s absolutely incorrect to treat this technology as anything but bleeding edge.
Ability to supercruise mainly only matters for fuel efficiency. It makes little difference to the shock wave volume on the ground. If a Raptor cruises overhead at Mach 1.5 you're going to notice.
We have one plane—soon to be retired—that can supercruise, i.e. sustain supersonic flight without afterburners, the F-22 [1]. It’s absolutely incorrect to treat this technology as anything but bleeding edge.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercruise