US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he is concerned about Chinese hypersonic missiles, days after a media report that Beijing had tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide weapon.
Asked by reporters whether he was concerned about Chinese hypersonic missiles as he boarded Air Force One for a trip to Pennsylvania, Biden said, “Yes.”
hypersonic weapon Travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere, or about 6,200 kilometers per hour (3,853 mph).
The Financial Times said over the weekend that China had in August tested a weapon that flew into space and circled the globe before heading towards a target it had missed. China’s foreign ministry denied the report.
The test came as the United States and its global rivals accelerated their pursuit of creating hypersonic weapons – next-generation weapons that rob opponents of reaction times and conventional defeat mechanisms.
“Hypersonic weapons are a strategic game-changer with the dangerous potential to undermine strategic stability,” Maine Senator Angus King said Monday. the progress of our competitors.”
The White House has expressed concern about Chinese hypersonic missile technology through “diplomatic channels,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday.
In September, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency successfully tested an air-breathing hypersonic weapon capable of speeds up to five times the speed of sound. This was the first successful test of the weapon class since 2013.
Companies such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies are working to develop America’s hypersonic weapons capability.
Hypersonic weapons are potential “nightmare weapons,” King said. “The implications of these weapons being developed by China or Russia could be disastrous.”
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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