The US Department of Defense is pouring money into hypersonic weapons after years of defense officials’ warnings that China is gaining superiority in that arena. But a 21st-century arms race is a major risk, especially without a full picture of Chinese weapons development and amid the increasingly poor relationship between the two nations.
Hypersonic weapons, or vehicles and missiles that travel faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, aren’t new; the US has been developing and testing those weapons since the 1950s. But there’s been relatively little US investment in these systems in recent decades, while China and Russia have developed their hypersonics programs. Russia even used six of its hypersonic Kinzhal missiles in Ukraine earlier this month, the largest number the country has deployed in one strike in the war. Other countries including Australia, Iran, both North and South Korea, Brazil, Germany, Israel, India, and Japan are developing hypersonic programs. However, the increase in funding and tempo of the US program comes as relations between the US and China are the worst they’ve been in decades.
The DoD’s proposed budget for Army and Air Force hypersonics development and requisition for the years 2023 through 2027 sits at $15 billion, according to a January report from the Congressional Budget Office. That figure doesn’t include the Navy’s hypersonics development program, which in February announced a $1.1 billion contract with the defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin to add a hypersonic system to Zumwalt-class destroyers.
Defense officials have been arguing for years that the US is “behind” China in its hypersonic weapons development, and that may be true. China fielded a test in 2021 of a hypersonic, nuclear-capable weapon which at the time took many in the defense community by surprise and showed astounding development in China’s hypersonics capabilities.
“Once, American technological predominance was…
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