Launch in August of nuclear-capable rocket that circled the globe took US intelligence by surprise
China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August that circled the globe before speeding towards its target, demonstrating an advanced space capability that caught US intelligence by surprise.
Five people familiar with the test said the Chinese military launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle which flew through low-orbit space before cruising down towards its target.
The missile missed its target by about two-dozen miles, according to three people briefed on the intelligence. But two said the test showed that China had made astounding progress on hypersonic weapons and was far more advanced than US officials realised.
The test has raised new questions about why the US often underestimated China's military modernisation.
"We have no idea how they did this," said a fourth person.
[...] Two of the people familiar with the Chinese test said the weapon could, in theory, fly over the South Pole. That would pose a big challenge for the US military because its missiles defence systems are focused on the northern polar route.
[Source]: The Financial Times (May be Paywalled for Some)
[Alternative Source]: archive.today
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The issue has not previously been high on the agenda in talks between the two countries, but China's recent test of a hypersonic missile that can attack multiple targets in flight have lent a new urgency to US defense thinking.
At the same time, Russia's recent test of a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile from a submarine in the north of the country has focused US military planners on the prospect of America falling behind its two superpower rivals in what some are seeing as a new arms race.
Hypersonic missiles are often defined as missiles launched by a rocket into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of Mach 5 and above (five times the speed of sound or 6,174 kilometers (3,836 miles) per hour), before maneuvering towards a target. Several countries already have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that travel just as fast—or even faster—but these cannot change trajectory once launched. The new generation of hypersonic missiles are equipped with glide vehicles that approach their targets at high speed in the final phase of flight.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17 2021, @10:42PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17 2021, @11:02PM (3 children)
Literally every retired and forced redundant mechanist, mechanical engineer, industrial designer and every other manufacturing professional could tell you exactly how they did this.
Useless, fatuous, MBAs like yourself paid them to learn everything the USA knows so they could decimate US labor and ensure your economic and political supremacy over what little remained of your country.
Your next move is to offer to administrate what remains on their behalf.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17 2021, @11:33PM (2 children)
Yes. WW3 is madness. The pure hubris of the drive to war with China is astounding.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @12:55AM (1 child)
If there is no enemy, how can we justify, to the plebs, the hundreds of billions in handouts to the weapons manufacturers and military contractors?
The plebs aren't buying it anymore that we need to spend a trillion dollars[1] a year on the military to chase down some guys living in a cave making fertilizer and diesel bombs. And, whenever they come up, embarrassing facts like we initially trained and armed these guys ourselves surface as well. And, that they've soundly defeated the US military, even with the $1T/year spending isn't really supporting the argument that a few hundred billion worth of additional bombers is going to do anything against this adversary.
We tried with Russia, but even with a massive, many years, propaganda blitz, we couldn't make them into a credible threat for the plebs. Russia has a lot of nukes, but they have almost nothing else left of what made the Soviet Union a super power. No honest and sane person claims there is a credible threat of Russia attacking the US.
China, is the perfect bogeyman. Except that China makes everything we use, and if they cut us off, our own society would devolve into chaos. The propaganda masters will have to be careful to distract people from this. A war with China will be lost, for the US, the moment it is started, as supply shortages shut down the country.
The US propaganda masters also have to carefully omit the fact that the Chinese haven't dropped a single bomb on foreign soil in 40 years-- they are not a marshal imperialist nation anywhere near to the extent that the US is. They also have engaged in no threatening behavior in the US's back yard. No Chinese naval vessels anywhere near North America. While the US has a regular, and increasing, presence in the S. China Sea[2].
Finally, the Chinese have invested over a trillion dollars into US treasuries. So, not only would they lose a major customer for all the stuff they make, they would lose that trillion dollar investment if they were to attack the US. No one has put forth a credible motivation for China to attack the US. Just scary bedtime tales to scare the plebs into supporting the bankrupting of the nation with useless military spending.
The US investing in "missile defense" is the motivation for the escalation of weaponry to deliver a retaliatory strike (to maintain deterrence) by both China and Russia. "Missile defense" is an offensive capability. If it worked, it would allow the US to engage in a first strike and avoid retaliation. Hypersonic missiles are not susceptible to currently deployed US missile defense systems[3].
[1]https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320
[2]https://www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_year-unusually-high-us-activity-noted-south-china-sea/6204108.html
[3]https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2021/09/13/congress-wants-answers-on-how-dod-is-solving-a-hypersonic-weapons-detection-gap/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Monday October 18 2021, @06:27AM
Not really buying "have they bombed somebody recently" is the best metric for this discussion. China has invaded and gotten in plenty of wars/border skirmishes since WWII, just not recently. And they've been busy claiming other countries' territorial waters with their artificial islands in the area. Yes the U.S. has literally been bombing various places in the Middle East (which has also been dumb) but c'mon. "I'm not touching you!"
Yeah, that's been the biggest advantage of being in the Western hemisphere for most of the U.S.'s history, that it's pretty fricking hard to actually get out here.
Because they don't have a deep-water navy, sure. But aren't they busy working on building carriers? Considering the size of the chip on their shoulder (cough unequal treaties cough), it's only a matter of time before they get there. Hell, these are the same guys who are currently running moon missions!
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17 2021, @11:51PM (3 children)
MAD, mutually assured destruction has new meaning. because of climate change it might just be enough to destroy worldwide civilization.
All the wasted resources to wage the war; All the wasted resources to repair what was blown up; added to an increasingly destructive nature ( flooding, heatwaves, forest fires) the whole house of cards will collapse.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @12:32AM (1 child)
"MAD" worked well; it prevented a civilization-ending war for over 50 years.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @02:21AM
Yeah, by sheer dumb luck and some good calls by people in charge of pushing the buttons. MAD is dangerously stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @03:19PM
But wouldn't nuclear winter make people stop worrying about the global warming problem? ;)
(Score: 5, Touché) by MIRV888 on Sunday October 17 2021, @11:53PM
War is the opiate of the masses.
Beats heroin.
Privatize the profits. Socialize the losses.
Easy money.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 18 2021, @02:21AM (2 children)
I thought the point was that it's a faster cruise missile, so it doesn't reach a high altitude, reaches the target faster, and is harder to react to.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 18 2021, @03:40AM
Keep thinking. This wasn't exactly a cruise missile. It's more of a Rod of God. Sure, the missile is nuclear capable, but why bother? Put any appreciable mass into orbit, then point it at a target and let it fall. Give it some additional acceleration or not, it has massive energy when it hits earth again. Also, hypersonic means we don't have the capability to knock it down. We might accidentally hit one, if we shoot at it enough times.
That's just one of the many reasons to set up mining operations on a metal rich mine. You can get millions of Rods of God out of a nice space rock.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @11:23AM
faster than icbm, or more direct and harder to detect anyway.
article claims it is akin to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @04:09PM
so this news is "political dressing" for actual engineering news in the aerospace department, specifically they got a "scram" or "ram" jet engine to work?
it could also deliver n.y. pizza really fast to seoul?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19 2021, @01:52AM (2 children)
... against the American military's secret weapon: diversity!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19 2021, @10:57AM (1 child)
As long as we love and trust one another and have as few white people in the building there is no obstacle we can overcome
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19 2021, @07:55PM
Awesome zinger. I look forward to meeting your pure redneck army on the battlefield.