The US and China are in a new ‘arms race’ to develop the most ‘lethal’ hypersonic missiles

US and China are in a new ‘arms race’ to develop most ‘lethal’ hypersonic missiles: Air Force Secretary admits falling behind Beijing and hopes to divert Afghanistan and Iraq funding for new orbital arsenal

The United States and China are engaged in an arms race to develop the most lethal hypersonic weapons, the U.S. Air Force secretary said Tuesday ‘There is an arms race, not necessarily for increased numbers, but for increased quality,’ Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Reuters In October, the top U.S. military officer, General Mark Milley, confirmed a Chinese hypersonic weapons test This year the Pentagon has held several hypersonic weapons tests with mixed success In October, the Navy successfully tested a booster rocket motor that would be used to power a launch vehicle carrying a hypersonic weapon aloft Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, or about 3,853 miles per hour 



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The United States and China are engaged in an arms race to develop the most lethal hypersonic weapons, the U.S. Air Force secretary said on Tuesday, as Beijing and Washington build and test more and more of the high-speed next-generation arms.

‘There is an arms race, not necessarily for increased numbers, but for increased quality,’ Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Reuters during an interview in his Pentagon offices. ‘It’s an arms race that has been going on for quite some time. The Chinese have been at it very aggressively.’ 

In October, the top U.S. military officer, General Mark Milley, confirmed a Chinese hypersonic weapons test that military experts say appears to show Beijing’s pursuit of an Earth-orbiting system designed to evade American missile defenses. 

The United States and China are engaged in an arms race to develop the most lethal hypersonic weapons, U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall (left) told Reuters Tuesday

The hypersonic glide vehicle is seen during a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2019 

And on Monday, Space Force Lieutenant General Chance Saltzman said that China’s new hypersonic weapon system might be able to stay in space for an extended amount of time, according to The Drive.

‘This is a categorically different system, because a fractional orbit is different than suborbital,’ Saltzman said. ‘A fractional orbit means it can stay on orbit as long as the user determines and then it de-orbits it as a part of the flight path.’ 

This year the Pentagon has held several hypersonic weapons tests with mixed success. 

In October, the Navy successfully tested a booster rocket motor that would be used to power a launch vehicle carrying a hypersonic weapon aloft.

Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, or about 3,853 miles per hour.

Kendall noted that while the U.S. military has focused funds on Iraq and Afghanistan, it has taken its eye off the ball in terms of hypersonic weapons. 

‘This isn’t saying we’ve done nothing, but we haven’t done enough,’ he said.

As the Pentagon enters the 2023 annual budget cycle, Kendall hopes to raise funds with the retirement of older and expensive-to-maintain systems in favor of new systems, including hypersonic development programs.

‘I love the A-10. The C-130 is a great aircraft that’s been very capable and very effective for a lot of missions. The MQ-9s have been very effective for counterterrorism and so on. They’re still useful, but none of these things scare China,’ Kendall said, referring to a more than 40-year-old combat aircraft, a plane for carrying cargo, and widely used drones, respectively.

Defense contractors hope to capitalize on the shift to hypersonic weapons not only by building them, but also by developing new detection and defeat mechanisms.

Arms makers Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp have all touted their hypersonic weapons programs to investors as world focus shifted to the new arms race for an emerging class of weapon.

Still, the Pentagon wants defense contractors to cut the ultimate cost of hypersonic weapons, the head of research and development has said, as the next generation of super-fast missiles being developed currently costs tens of millions per unit.

Russia and China are attacking US satellites ‘every single day’ with lasers, radio jammers and cyber attacks in a shadow space war, Space Force commander claims

American satellites far outside the Earth’s orbit are facing a near-constant barrage of threats from Russian and Chinese technology, and it’s only getting worse, a top Space Force officer is warning.  

An arms race in space between the US, Russia and China has been steadily heating up in recent years even as officials in Washington warn that such a build-up is dangerous. 

‘The threats are really growing and expanding every single day. And it’s really an evolution of activity that’s been happening for a long time,’ General David Thompson told the Washington Post in a piece published on Tuesday. 

Thompson is the US Space Force’s first vice chief of space operations, having previously served more than three decades in the Air Force. 

He warned, ‘We’re really at a point now where there’s a whole host of ways that our space systems can be threatened.’

Some of the regular attacks facing the US include the use of lasers, radio frequency jamming and other cyberattacks, Thompson said. 

He also revealed that a 2019 weapons test by a Russian satellite came so close to a US satellite that the military feared an imminent attack. 

The general assured that when it comes to outer space technology, ‘We are still the best in the world, clearly in terms of capability.’

However he said China was ‘catching up quickly,’ adding: ‘We should be concerned by the end of this decade if we don’t adapt.’ 

Thompson said China is sending up new satellites twice as fast as the US is managing to, and that the budding superpower is working on a system of global satellites aimed at surveilling any part of the world.

‘They’re fielding operational systems at an incredible rate,’ he said. 

The debris field created by the Russian anti-satellite test against Cosmos 1408 in LEO (low Earth orbit) causing alarm to the ISS crew, satellite operators, and spacefaring nations.

Russia blew up one of its own satellites on Monday, November 15, using a missile. Cosmos 1408, a defunct spy satellite launched in 1982, was the destroyed target, which resulted in a field of 1,500 pieces of debris endangering the crew of the ISS

For years China has reportedly been working on a satellite that could physically attack another object in space with a robotic arm or grappling hook. 

In theory it could disrupt or even disable US satellites which revealed information about China’s nuclear operations and the existence of Uyghur Muslim concentration camps.

‘The Chinese are actually well ahead’ of their Russian counterparts, Thompson claimed. 

Earlier this month Russia carried out an anti-satellite weapon test, alarming the global scientific community.

Russia’s anti-satellite, or ASAT, launched on November 15, and purposefully shattered the country’s 4,410-pound Cosmos 1408 satellite, launched in 1982, because it was no longer operational.

According to experts, the space debris from last week’s collision over the Atlantic Ocean – which included ‘some 1,500 pieces of trackable size’ – will cause havoc for spacecraft for years, if not decades. 

Because of the impact, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), orbiting 260 miles from Earth, were told to shelter for two hours to let the debris pass.

One space firm slammed Russia for endangering the crew of the ISS, calling it an ‘irresponsible act that harms all spacefaring nations’.

Thompson recalled one specific instance when Russia came dangerously close to attacking the United States in space.

In 2019, a small Russian satellite was deployed so close to a ‘national security satellite’ belonging to the US that the government was unsure if it was an attack.

‘It maneuvered close, it maneuvered dangerously, it maneuvered threateningly so that they were coming close enough that there was a concern of collision,’ Thompson explained. 

But the situation was diffused when the Russian satellite backed away, releasing a small target then shooting it in a weapons test. 

‘Clearly, the Russians were sending us a message,’ Thompson claimed. 

The Space Force general would not say whether Russia or China has done any permanent or significant damage to US equipment in space, explaining that such an attack would be classified. 

But just today, NASA was forced to postpone a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today after receiving a ‘debris notification’ for the orbital outpost. 

Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron were set to venture outside the giant orbiting laboratory at 7:10am ET for six and a half hours to replace a faulty radio communications antenna.

‘NASA received a debris notification for the space station,’ the space agency tweeted.

‘Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the Nov. 30 spacewalk until more information is available.’

It is not clear if the debris stems from the event two weeks ago, when Russia blew up one of its own decommissioned satellites. 

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