China has stunned US intelligence and military officials by testing a nuclear capable hypersonic missile that traveled through low orbit in space, making a full circle around the globe before speeding towards its target.
China has tested a new space capability with a hypersonic missile, the Financial Times reported on Saturday (Oct 16).
The report, citing multiple sources familiar with the test, said Beijing in August launched a nuclear-capable missile that circled the Earth at low orbit before descending toward its target, which three sources said it missed by over 32km.
FT sources said the hypersonic glide vehicle was carried by a Long March rocket, launches of which it usually announces, though the August test was kept under wraps.
The report added that China’s progress on hypersonic weapons “caught US intelligence by surprise”.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he would not comment on the specifics of the report but added: “We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue, capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond. That is one reason why we hold China as our number one pacing challenge.”
Along with China, the United States, Russia and at least five other countries are working on hypersonic technology.
Hypersonic missiles, like traditional ballistic missiles which can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly at more than five times the speed of sound.
But ballistic missiles fly high into space in an arc to reach their target, while a hypersonic missile flies on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, potentially reaching a target more quickly.
Crucially, a hypersonic missile is manoeuvrable (like the much slower, often subsonic cruise missile), making it harder to track and defend against.
While countries like the US have developed systems designed to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, the ability to track and take down a hypersonic missile remains a question.
China has been aggressively developing the technology, seeing it as crucial to defend against US gains in hypersonic and other technologies, according to a recent report by the US Congressional Research Service.
The reported test comes as US-China tensions have mounted and Beijing has stepped up military activity near Taiwan.
Recently, a senior professor at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Valery Golubkin, was accused of sharing classified information to a NATO country and locked up for betrayal.
He was arrested for leaking top secret documents related to Russia’s hypersonic plane to an unspecified NATO country.
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that’s all folks, time to learn chinese.
Sell off all the billion dollar aircraft carriers: sitting ducks.
Not much point having aircraft carriers or the planes which fly off them, when all of the personnel have been fired for refusing to have Biden’s vaccine jabs and even if they have agreed to have the vaccine shots, they would probably get blood clots, while flying in pressurized suits, after vaccines, so wiping off million dollar planes because the pilots black out or died, does not make much sense to me.
Imagine Biden or someone else, calling up the aircraft assembly factories and ordering new planes, like people buy sweets (candy) from a sweet shop (candy) Much laughter!!
I would imagine after forcing mandates on all military personnel, the only people they can employ are those who have been vaccinated, but their health would be suspect, after vaccination, or booster shots, every 2 months and with personnel dropping like flies, because of vaccines, I don’t suppose the Army, Airforce, Navy could expect troops to be much good, in a front line war and who would want to enlist to die far from home and family, from vaccines, anyway?
Add supply chains failing in the next few winter months and shelves in your shops remaining empty , imagine the fun you will be having trying to keep body and soul together, keeping warm and keeping a roof over your heads, without also having to factor in Covid and vaccines and the effects and deaths they cause.
Alien 👽 tech reverse engineered.
I am surprised that the whole world has fallen for this news. Not a single person or media is considering that this could be a psyop to put fear in the heart of nations. With increased activity and talk of military cooperation within the the QUAD, its attempts at provoking taiwan with daily incursions and further isolation because of its policies like the debt diplomacy of the BRI Projects etc etc. It is completely pausible that the CCP will release such fake news to shape a narrative and the entire world has fallen for it and including this portal.
Please @greatgameindia you are better than this.
Good points Narendra Singh. China and USA take their orders from the same global elite, and fear is the name of their game. I suggest GGI use more discernment when reporting from mainstream media articles.
Make sense. This could have been a fear mongering plan.