China’s efforts to surpass the United States as the world’s foremost military power are making significant progress, based on a July test of a hypersonic weapons system.
The top U.S. military officer confirmed Beijing’s July 27 test of a high-speed system that orbits Earth to better evade U.S. missile defense systems, calling the development “very concerning.”
“What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.
“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” he added, referring to Russia’s launch of the world’s first artificial satellite in the 1950s, which sparked the space race that dominated the next several decades. “It has all of our attention.”
A surprise, report says
Until now, U.S. officials have declined to speak publicly about the Chinese weapons test, first reported by the Financial Times, which said it took U.S. intelligence officials by surprise.
The Financial Times also reported that while the Chinese weapon missed its target by several kilometers, the test marked the first time any country had sent a hypersonic weapon fully around Earth.
For years, U.S. military officials have warned about the dangers of hypersonic weapons, which travel faster than five times the speed of sound and are capable of carrying nuclear payloads.
In 2018, General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned that Washington’s best defense against hypersonic weapons was to be able to mount similar offensive capabilities.
“We don't have any defense that could deny the deployment of such a weapon against us," said Hyten, then the commander of U.S. Strategic Command.
Since then, U.S. military officials have made the development of hypersonic weapons a priority, boosting research following a Russian test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider in 2018.
Last week, the U.S. Army and Navy announced several tests of hypersonic weapons components, describing them as successful.
But concerns about hypersonic weapons persist.
“We just don't know how we can defend against that type of technology,” Ambassador Robert Wood, the top U.S. arms control official, told reporters in Geneva last week, when asked about the reported Chinese test.
“Neither does China or Russia,” Wood added.
For its part, China has denied it carried out a hypersonic missile test, saying it actually tested a reusable spacecraft.
But U.S. officials said Wednesday that in any case, China’s military trajectory is worrying.
“They continue to pursue capabilities that increase tensions in the region, and we continue to have concerns about that,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, declining to comment directly on Beijing’s hypersonic test.
The Pentagon also refused to comment directly on the test, saying only that the development “reinforces for us the need to continue to treat the PRC [People’s Republic of China] as our No. 1 challenge.”
"We are laser focused on making sure that we have the operational concepts, the capabilities, the resources that we need to deal with this pacing challenge,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said during a briefing, in response to a question from VOA.
“They have a global reach that we have to be careful about.” he said.
VOA's Carla Babb and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters.
