General Mark Milley, the senior US military officer, has reported the first official US confirmation of a Chinese hypersonic weapons test, which military experts believe shows Beijing’s pursuit of an Earth-orbiting system meant to evade American missile defences.
Even as President Joe Biden and other officials have expressed general concerns about Chinese hypersonic weapons development, the Pentagon has been careful to withhold direct confirmation of the Chinese test this summer.
Milley, on the other hand, confirmed a test and said it was “quite similar” to a Sputnik moment, referring to Russia’s 1957 launch of the first man-made satellite, which put Moscow ahead of the competition in the Cold War-era space race.
China’s weapons test appeared to be meant to elude US defences in two ways, according to nuclear arms specialists.
First, hypersonic travel at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, or around 6,200 kph (3,853 mph), making them more difficult to detect and intercept.
Second, according to Reuters, the United States believes China’s test involved a weapon that orbited the Earth first. According to military experts, ‘fractional orbital bombardment’ was a Cold War idea.
Last month, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall alluded to his worries about such a system when describing a missile that would ascend into orbit and then descend on a target.
Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Wednesday that what they witnessed was a historically significant test of a hypersonic weapon system, also adding that it was a very concerning issue.
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