Hypersonic missiles and aircraft – able to fly five times the speed of sound – are likely to arrive by 2040, senior US Air Force officials said this past weekend, and are heating up the arms race between the U.S., Russia and China.
Both types of missiles and vehicles are long-range, precision guided munitions (PGM) thought to have the ability to penetrate the US ballistic missile defense systems, which itself can intercept enemy aerial offensives, according to
The International Business Times.
China, for instance, staged its fourth test flight of a Mach 5 vehicle – The Wu-14 – earlier this month. That flight took place amid the ongoing US-China tensions in the South China Sea. China's earlier tests, in January and August 2014, prompted a congressional outlay of $70.7 million for hypersonic weapons development in fiscal year 2015.
The Russian Yu-71 also went out for a jaunt earlier this month, but that flight was ultimately unsuccessful.
The National Interest reported that Chinese fears "skyrocketed after President Barack Obama’s Prague speech and the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)."
"The Chinese understood America’s decreasing reliance on nuclear weapons as being tantamount to a greater reliance on conventional weapons — especially CPGS [conventional prompt global strike] — where the United States enjoys an undeniable superiority. Thus, the Chinese regard President Obama’s vision for a nuclear-free world as a trap that aims at containing China’s rise to power."
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