Hypersonic arms race set to change power dynamics between countries and the tempo of modern combat

Name: Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says
Uploaded: 2022-07-09T22:00:25.000Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says

Western democracies are developing weapons that travel at least five times the speed of sound in response to rapid development by China and Russia

Difficulty in intercepting and defending against them mean warfare could become a ‘battle of the first salvo’, or he who shoots first, wins, says analyst

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Chinese military vehicles carry DF-17 on the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. China has operationally deployed the DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle. Photo: Weibo

Kristin Huang

Published: 6:00am, 10 Jul 2022Updated: 12:22pm, 10 Jul 2022

Experts warn that an emerging hypersonic arms race raises the danger of miscalculation and retaliatory strikes.

The assessment comes as several countries, including the United States, China and Russia, are developing the highly destructive weapon whose high speed and greater range make them difficult to intercept.

In an anti-ship or land-attack role, hypersonic weapons – which can travel at more than five times the speed of sound – could be a significant threat and give a decisive advantage to one side if its opponent lacks a similar capability or the means to defend itself against hypersonic weapons.

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Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says

Western democracies are developing hypersonic weapons in response to the rapid development of such weapons by China and Russia, who appear to have a lead in this area.

China has operationally deployed the DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle and is set to deploy a bomber-launched anti-ship missile, named CH-AS-X-13. The country also tested an orbital hypersonic glide vehicle on a fractional-orbital bombardment system last year.

Russia is developing its own system. The Kinzhal is a nuclear-capable hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-surface missile that has a claimed range of more than 2,000km (1,250 miles) at 12 times the speed of sound. The Kinzhal entered service in December 2017.

Meanwhile, the US and its allies appear to have fallen behind, with the US recently marking its first successful test of an air-launched hypersonic weapon. The US, Britain and Australia agreed in April to work together to develop “advanced hypersonic and counter-hypersonic” weapons under their Aukus trilateral security pact.

And the Japanese military is considering developing a hypersonic anti-ship missile with a warhead specifically designed to penetrate the decks of Chinese aircraft carriers.