China’s air force has a new hypersonic missile that enhances “the attack capability” of the rising communist power’s bomber fleet, according to reports.
“This new missile can match other similar weapons being developed by Russia or the U.S.,” the South China Morning Post quoted a “Beijing-based military source” as saying. “But we still need to improve our bombers to unleash its full potential.”
Pentagon military strategists have eyed China’s military modernization plan with growing unease, as Washington’s wealthy rival has fielded land-based cruise missiles that can threaten every major U.S. military base in the region. The new air-launched missile reportedly can carry conventional missiles and nuclear warheads, in keeping with Beijing’s pursuit of a world-class military.
“As other countries are racing to develop more and more advanced defense systems and other hypersonic weapons, it was time for the Chinese air force to have an upgraded missile to boost its attack range,” the source said.
American lawmakers fear that China has acquired the weaponry necessary to defeat U.S. forces in the region, as Beijing’s military strategists have developed a military structure tailored to countering American forces.
“The first thing that you’d have to do with certain pieces of our equipment is leave the area if China were to escalate this way,” said Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations subcommittee for East Asia and the Pacific. “That’s not exactly a position of strength.”
Such capabilities may require a repositioning of American military positions throughout the region, though the details of that shift remain unclear.
“We aren’t planing for war we are planning to prevent one. We have to be forward with a credible blunt force that will inevitably be at some risk,” tweeted former U.S. Pacific Command adviser Eric Sayers, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for New American Security. “There is a war planning and prevention paradox. One compelling way to prepare is to build substantive projection forces out of range that can safely surge, but this falls short for allies and deterrence. We need a balance of planning/prevention that accepts necessary risk.”
The shifting balance of power in the region has stoked misgivings about whether China might attack Taiwan, the island redoubt of the government overthrown during the 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution. However, U.S. lawmakers and officials have emphasized that the Pentagon could still inflict punishing losses on the People’s Liberation Army.
“I’m confident we would prevail today in any conflict,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said recently.
