Opinion | China’s hi-tech missile ambitions are marching ahead at warp speed
But it’s not too late for Washington and Beijing to address their mutual concerns before they get into an arms race around hypersonic weapons
The word “hypersonic” conjures up the idea of immense speed, as it should. The word itself refers to any speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5.
But when it comes to missile technology, “hypersonic” speed isn’t particularly impressive or new. Indeed, due to the gravitational forces involved, long-range ballistic missiles – including the United States’ first-generation SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missiles and the Soviet Union’s R-7 Semyorka – would see their payloads reach massive speeds well in excess of Mach 5 during atmospheric re-entry.
Nevertheless, burgeoning hypersonic technologies stand to challenge strategic stability between superpowers. For years, the United States, Russia, and China have been investing considerable resources into the research and development of hypersonic glide vehicles – a decades-old concept that only now is seeing widespread interest.
These weapons, at their core, involve a simple trade-off that sets them apart from their simpler ballistic missile counterparts. They sacrifice long-range ballistic missile re-entry speeds for extended range and their flight pattern allows them to present unique challenges to existing ballistic missile defence systems.
Hypersonic boost-glide weapons also feature more complex trajectories compared to the roughly parabolic ones seen in ballistic missiles, posing further challenges for missile defence.