Thursday, October 28, 2021
Compared to “Sputnik shock”
US worried about China’s hypersonic missile
The US is assuming that China tested a new type of weapon a few weeks ago: Beijing is testing a hypersonic missile system for the first time in August. The US military is concerned and is comparing it to the “Sputnik moment” of 1957.
The Pentagon confirmed the test of a hypersonic missile by China last August. It was the “very significant event of the test of a hypersonic weapon system,” said the chief of staff of the US Armed Forces, Mark Milley, on Bloomberg TV. The test is “very worrying”.
Milley drew a comparison with the so-called Sputnik shock of 1957 – the first completely surprising flight of a Soviet Sputnik satellite through earth orbit for the West. It was the first time ever that such a flight of an artificial earth satellite succeeded. The result was an accelerated race between the US and the Soviet Union in space and armaments.
Although he does not know whether the test of the Chinese hypersonic missile is completely equivalent to a “Sputnik moment”, the test comes “very close” to it. It is a “very significant technological event” that the United States followed with “full attention”.
In the past few days, the US government and army had not yet confirmed the test of the Chinese “Long March” hypersonic missile. The US Permanent Representative on Disarmament Issues in Geneva, Robert Wood, expressed himself “very concerned” in general terms earlier last week about Beijing’s technical advances in the area of hypersonic missiles, after the Financial Times about the missile’s test Technology had reported.
The USA are also striving for hypersonic technology
The British newspaper reported that during the test, the nuclear weapon-capable slip body circled the earth in a low orbit at five times the speed of sound, but missed its target by 30 kilometers. Beijing denied the report, however. It was a routine test for “reusable space technology,” said Foreign Office spokesman Zhao Lijian on Monday last week.
China had already presented a hypersonic medium-range missile, the DF-17, in 2019. This has a range of around 2000 kilometers. According to the “Financial Times”, the test last August was a different model with a greater range.
The US disarmament commissioner Wood said on Monday last week that since Russia also has hypersonic technology, the US now has no choice but to react accordingly. However, the United States is already working on expanding its arsenal to include hypersonic missiles and has already tested this missile technology.
In addition to the USA, China and Russia, North Korea and at least four other countries are also working on hypersonic rocket technology. Like ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles can carry nuclear weapons. However, while ballistic missiles fly in a high arc through space, hypersonic missiles remain in low orbit. They are also remotely controlled, which makes shooting a lot more difficult.