Will China's Hypersonic Missile Test Trigger An Arms Race

The FT's sources said the hypersonic glide vehicle was carried by a Long March rocket, launches of which China usually announces, though the August test was kept under wraps [Stringer/ AFP] 

Jen Judson, Defense News: Chinese hypersonic missile test unlikely to trigger arms race, experts say 

WASHINGTON — The August test of a Chinese space-based hypersonic missile is unlikely to trigger an arms race, but could influence the White House and Defense Department’s effort to shape new missile defense and nuclear posture strategies, experts say. 

Top military officials gave clues in the late summer and early fall that they knew this event, which was first reported by the Financial Times, was happening. 

Gen. Glen VanHerck, the U.S. Northern Command chief, in a speech at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, in August, briefly mentioned China had “just demonstrated” a “very fast” hypersonic vehicle. 

At the time, he said he couldn’t provide more detail, but noted the demonstration would challenge current threat warning systems.  

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WNU Editor: Americans may debate whether an arms race is about to begin. But China has invested enormously to build up its armed forces in the past two decades (if that is not an arms race, I then do not know what is). 

And China is not alone. Its neighbors have in turn responded by upping their defense budgets and forming alliances.

Update: Analysis is true .... China’s Test of An Orbital Hypersonic Missile Is A Big Deal (1945).