A MiG-31 interceptor equipped with the supersonic Kinzhal missile. © Yevgeniy Biyatov / Sputnik
National Defense: SPECIAL REPORT: China, Russia Hypersonic Programs - Real Progress or Bluster?
China and Russia’s intention to pursue hypersonic weapons lit a fire under the U.S. military, forcing it to re-invigorate its own programs.
But just how far the two rivals have come in their own programs and whether or not they can penetrate the United States’ missile defenses is a matter of debate. Are they behind?
Have they caught up? Or are they ahead of the United States when it comes to this disruptive technology?
The answers are opaque, experts said.
Read more ....
Previous Post: How Worried Should The U.S. Be About Russia's And China's Hypersonic Missiles? (July 6, 2019)
WNU Editor: I know that both China and Russia are serious when it comes to developing hypersonic weapons. They have not only invested monies and resources to make it happen, but more importantly both Presidents Putin and Xi have invested their political capital on its success. As to how advanced their programs are .... from what I have read the Russians are ahead, but they are limited in having the resources to deploy a significant number of these weapons .... U.S. Intelligence: Russia Will Only Make A Few Units Of A Hypersonic Weapon (July 2, 2019). The American version will catch up when testing begins later this year or next .... U.S. Navy Gets Ready For Hypersonic Weapons (July 1, 2019), and the Chinese version exists in propaganda videos .... New Propaganda Video Shows China Simulating A Hypersonic Missile Attack On Enemy Forces (June 28, 2019).
3 comments:
Yes.
But USA can quickly catch up.
The US doesn't need to catch up. The only real reason to spend time and money developing hypersonic weapons is if you think your opponent may have effective anti-missile defense. Which Russia and China don't. They're simply one small tool in the arsenal for quickly disabling patriot defense batteries and aircraft carriers. Russia has no plans to make every missile in their inventory hypersonic capable; just enough to counter those specific threats before moving on to using more conventional delivery systems to fight the rest of the war. The US will obviously try and catch up, and in some regard I guess the pentagon should just for the sake of keeping on top of the tech, but it would be a supreme waste to use one on a traditional radar station when a cruise missile does the same thing just as effectively.
This is why W shouldn't have pushed missile defense onto the eastern NATO countries. It reignited this arms race like all the experts said it would.
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