The Financial Times said on Saturday that China launched a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August, which circled the Earth in low orbit before descending on its missile target. Due to the high speed at which they travel, these projectiles are impossible to detect and intercept with available anti-missile technologies.
China denied that version yesterday and pointed out that the episode was actually “a routine test of a space vehicle with the aim of testing the technology of this type of reusable artifacts,” according to Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Hypersonic technology is only one aspect of all the concerns we have regarding the militarization of China. Its strategic nuclear force is of great concern to us and has been for a long time, “said the US ambassador.
Confession
“We don’t know how to defend ourselves against this technology, and China and Russia don’t know either,” Wood said.
“If yours is a country that is the target of this type of weapon, it will want to defend itself against it and then we will start looking for other applications, such as defenses against hypersonic technology. If that is done, it will help to accelerate the arms race ”, he concluded.
The US ambassador stressed that Russia also has this hypersonic capacity, and stated that the United States “has refrained from continuing” the military development of this technology, which refers to objects capable of flying at Mach 5 speeds, even higher, which are maneuverable, making them difficult to detect and intercept. However, faced with the development of this type of weaponry, “we have no choice but to react along the same lines,” Wood said.
Similarly, North Korea, a country that has also developed nuclear capabilities, has also recently conducted such a test.
Delay
The United States does not yet have hypersonic missiles in its arsenal, but it is already working on it. The Darpa, scientific arm of the US Army, recently announced that it successfully tested its hypersonic missile HAWC (Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept) of aerobic propulsion, that is, using oxygen from the atmosphere for its combustion. The Pentagon is also developing a hypersonic glider called the ARRW (pronounced Arrow), but last April its first full-scale test was unsuccessful.
In 2019, China had already unveiled a hypersonic missile, the DF-17. It is an intermediate-range weapon (about 2,000 km), shaped like a “glider” and can carry nuclear warheads.
The missile pointed out by the Financial Times is different in that it could reach space, put into orbit and then re-pass the atmosphere and head towards its target. Its range would be vastly greater than that of the DF-17.
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