The U.S. government is years behind China in the pursuit of so-called hypersonic weapons that bob and weave through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound, Raytheon Technologies Corp.’s chief executive officer said Tuesday.
The emerging, ultra-fast weapon systems have sparked concerns because of their potential to destabilize relations between the U.S., China, and Russia.
They may also become a front in the mounting competition between Beijing and Washington as the world’s two largest economies clash over trade, technology, and humanitarian issues. Raytheon is developing a hypersonic cruise missile with the U.S. military.
The craft separates and zips toward a target while manoeuvring through the atmosphere, and Hayes said such weapons could reach speeds of 22,000 miles per hour.
In September, Raytheon’s Missile and defence unit successfully test-fired a hypersonic cruise missile that can travel at speeds greater than Mach 5 as part of a development contract for the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Department’s advanced technology development agency.
U.S. missile early warning starts with a network of infrared satellites that can detect a launch of an ICBM and track it through its flight.
At the same time, upgraded early warning radars at Beale Air Force base in California, Fylingdales in the U.K., and Thule in Greenland, along with the Cobra Dane phased-array radar in Alaska and a range of other sensors, give radar tracks that cue missile interceptors for a mid-course intercept.
The U.S. national missile defence system currently consists of 40 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska and four at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, with 20 more to be deployed by 2024.
The system, designed to defeat a limited raid from North Korean ICBMs, not a large-scale Chinese or Russian nuclear attack. However, Beijing is anxious about U.S. defensive measures.
The concern driving China’s FOBS–HGV capability must be that U.S. missile defence will expand and become more effective over time, mainly if an expanded ground-based interceptor force comes together with ship-based SM-3 interceptors.
Is the Chinese hypersonic test like a “Sputnik moment’?
The Pentagon’s top general said Wednesday that China’s recent test of an earth-circling hypersonic missile was akin to the Soviet Union’s stunning launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, which sparked the superpowers’ space race.
Washington, October 27, 2021 -The Pentagon’s top general said Wednesday that China’s recent test of an earth-circling hypersonic missile was akin to the Soviet Union’s stunning launch of the world’s first satellite Sputnik 1957, which sparked the superpowers’ space race.
Washington, October 27, 2021 -The Pentagon’s top general said Wednesday that China’s recent test of an earth-circling hypersonic missile was akin to the Soviet Union’s stunning launch of the world’s first satellite Sputnik 1957, which sparked the superpowers’ space race.
Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed for the first time the Chinese test of a nuclear-capable missile that would be very difficult to defend.
The Pentagon had previously declined to confirm the test, first reported by the Financial Times on October 16. The newspaper said the August test launch caught the United States by surprise.
According to the Financial Times, the missile circled the Earth at a low altitude and a velocity of more than five times the speed of sound, although it missed its target by more than 30 kilometres (19 miles).
China denied the report, saying it was a routine test of a reusable space vehicle.
Hypersonic is the new frontier in missile technology because they fly lower and are more complicated to detect than ballistic missiles, can reach targets more quickly, and are manoeuvrable.
That makes them more dangerous, particularly if mounted with nuclear warheads. The United States, Russia, China, and North Korea have all tested hypersonic and are developing the technology at several others.
China unveiled a hypersonic medium-range missile, the DF-17, in 2019, which can travel around 2,000 kilometres and can carry nuclear warheads.
The rocket mentioned in the F.T. story is a different one, with a more extended range, and it can launch into orbit before coming back into the atmosphere to hit its target.
