IMO that’s in line with the other characteristics mentioned, like a couple of orders of magnitude more powerful than regular humans, plus flying powers
Surviving a mach 1 impact sounds more like superman complete invulnerability.
If they aren’t roughly that durable then just running at mach 1 would kill them. Hitting a car would be like a normal human running into a mass of jello.
IMO if that’s not true for a fighter jet, it’s not true for a superhero. But I guess until we develop superhero serum we can’t say for sure.
Maybe but the US military is pretty resilient to command and control attacks. It would take a lot more than just killing some top brass to make it ineffective.
This is one of my bug bears with post apocalypse sci fi, it generally under estimates what it would take for the US military to collapse completely. The US military was setup during the Cold war to carry on functioning and fight a war after a exchange of nuclear weapons between the US and the USSR. Whatever silly sci fi scenario you can come up, e.g. evil superpowered bad guys trying to wipe them out or a zombie pandemic, is less horrific than central Europe in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear war between the US and the USSR.
I think if they were patient, about 100 could conquer the entire world in about a year. They could issue various ultimatums to all the world governments, spelling out the consequences of failure to comply. A few demonstrations of their powers would convince most governments to go along. The elimination of the few recalcitrant leaders would expedite agreement. If they turned out to be “benevolent despots”, most of the world’s population wouldn’t be fanatically opposed.
If there were 50 in LA and NYC and just announced they were the new world leaders and did some demonstration of power to prove how strong they are, they’d all be dead within the day.
Bad guys: muwwahhhahh! I will destroy your president and every member of your government if you don’t…
Wait a second let me finish. Don’t you want to hear my demands before you refuse? What do mean go ahead?
How? Kryptonite doesn’t exist in the OP’s description. Or do you think the U.S. or some other government would launch 10 megaton bombs at LA & NY.
In the OP’s description, kryptonite (or nukes) isn’t necessary, just a 20 mm armor piercing shell. The US military has lots of those.
How many would it take to hit a human sized target moving at mach 1? The superhumans wouldn’t just stand still like George Reeves letting the bullets bounce off him.
I’m guessing that you saw the Simpsons episode where Kang & Kodos made the same threat.
“Don’t forget Ken Starr,” Bart reminded them. I’m sure everyone can suggest a more current public figure to the superhumans.
Okay, someone has to say it
Batman, if he’s prepared.
Just hide a really big bomb, trick them into landing next to it, and blow it up.
You just have to outsmart them, and that won’t be too hard - after all, the the OP didn’t say they were super-smart, which means that your smartest guys will be much smarter than them.
Anyway, to answer the question in the OP: at least 1,000.
How many do you want? The Phalanx system can fire 4500/minute, and it’s designed to hit a target moving at supersonic speeds. The C-RAM is the land based version.
The one big advantage the supers would have would be stealth (like @Snarky_Kong said): Until they start using their powers, they’d look just like anyone else.
What you’d want to do is to pick one or two prominent world leaders to use as examples. Announce to the world “We have a new superweapon. Tomorrow afternoon, X and Y will be assassinated.”. Then get a couple of these guys close to their targets by conventional means (watching a speech or something), and only go supersonic once they’re in striking distance. With luck, nobody will even be able to tell how the targets were killed.
Then, you announce “We will continue to use this superweapon until our demands are met. If (X nation) does not meet our demands, (Y leader) will die next”, and continue until everyone’s cooperating. Move fast, before they can figure out what’s going on and deploy countermeasures. Because they will figure it out eventually.
I think 200 would be sufficient for the initial takeover. During the initial takeover I think it would be best if they were divided between every state and federal capital and the largest and most important military bases and command centers. The idea is to eliminate/coerce the political leadership and destroy major centers of resistance all at once as a fait accompli. If unprecedented military losses in such a short span of time doesn’t induce the leaders to surrender then attacking civilians in cities can also be done to demonstrate how far the superhumans are willing to go to get what they want. There would still be an insurgency afterward but the mission would be functionally completed. A territory doesn’t have to be completely free of enemies to be considered conquered.
Ninjaed, but I was about to reply that it takes only one subhuman.