China claims to have successfully tested hypersonic capabilities last week. Hypersonic weapons, which travel several times faster than the speed of sound, have long been a concern for the United States military, because they can get through current U.S. missile defenses systems. Although the short test might not be seen as a Sputnik moment, the U.S. cannot afford to allow China’s military development to remain unmatched.
In March, Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, laid out what was at stake if we fail to meet the challenge of hypersonic weapons: “When the Chinese can deploy tactical or regional hypersonic systems, they hold at risk our carrier battle groups. They hold our entire surface fleet at risk. They hold at risk our forward-deployed land-based forces.”
In short, that means that hypersonic weapons could threaten U.S. aircraft carriers, troops, and other U.S. targets.
That would be alarming enough, but the U.S. is ill-prepared to respond. As Griffin explained before, “If our response is either let them win or go nuclear, that’s a bad place to be. It invites bad behavior on the part of adversaries.”
The test of the missile, named “Starry Sky-2,” was carried out by the China Academy of Aerospace and Aerodynamics, which is linked to the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and based in Beijing.
The “waverider” technology is actually pretty cool, as the missile rides the shockwaves generated by its own hypersonic flight. This is how Beijing’s launch reached speeds faster than Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). To get a picture of just how fast that is, at Mach 5, it would take only 30 minutes to cross the continental U.S.
But why is China so interested in developing these hypersonic weapons?
China wants to establish parity with the U.S. military. Right now, the U.S. has vastly superior military capabilities, including aircraft carriers. To challenge U.S. firepower with existing technology would be difficult and costly. Instead, China has bet on cutting-edge technology that plays into the weaknesses of U.S. defenses. That would mean they could spend less money and still have the capacity to challenge the U.S.
To be sure, the U.S. military is also developing hypersonic capabilities and successfully tested the Boeing X-51 Waverider in 2010 and 2013. But these developments do not mean that the U.S. is prepared to defend against a hypersonic attack and, as indicated by Griffin’s remarks, both the U.S. and our adversaries know this and China’s rapid development of advanced military technology should be taken as a credible threat.
