Sputnik moment General Milley calls Chinese hypersonic weapon test very concerning
Washington: China recently conducted a âvery concerningâ test of a hypersonic weapon system as part of its aggressive advance in space and military technologies, the top US military officer says.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the first Pentagon official to confirm on-the-record the nature of a test this year by the Chinese military that the Financial Times had reported was a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon that was launched into space and orbited the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and gliding toward its target in China.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Credit:AP
Milley said he could not discuss details because aspects involved classified intelligence. He said the United States is also working on hypersonic weapons, whose key features include flight trajectory, speed and manoeuvrability that make them capable of evading early warning systems that are part of US missile defences. The US has not conducted a hypersonic weapon test of the sort Milley said China had achieved.
âWhat we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system, and it is very concerning,â Milley said on The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations on Bloomberg Television.
âI think I saw in some of the newspapers, they used the term Sputnik moment,â he added. âI donât know if itâs quite a Sputnik moment, but I think itâs very close to that. So itâs a very significant technological event that occurred, or test that occurred, by the Chinese. And it has all of our attention.â
The launch of a Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957 stunned the world and fed US fears that it was falling behind technologically in an accelerating arms race in the early stages of the nuclear age.
China has disputed Western news reports about its test, saying it was working on technology for a re-useable space vehicle for peaceful purposes.
Asked about Milleyâs remarks, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said he was conveying concern about Chinaâs military modernisation.
âThey continue to pursue capabilities that increase tensions in the region,â she said. âAnd we continue to have concerns about that. And I think that was reflected in his comments.â
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby declined to comment on the test or on Milleyâs remarks beyond saying that Chinaâs work on advanced hypersonic weaponry is among a âsuite of issuesâ that cause the Biden administration to be concerned by âthe trajectory of where things are going in the Indo-Pacificâ.
Asked about progress on US hypersonic weapon technologies, Kirby said it âis real, itâs tangible, and we are absolutely working toward being able to develop that capability.â He declined to provide specifics.
Some US defence experts say the worry about Chinaâs work on a hypersonic weapon that could deliver a nuclear weapon from space are overblown.
James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote in an essay last week that the United States has long been vulnerable to a Chinese nuclear attack.
âWhile the prospect of a nuclear attack against the United States is terrifying, this is no Sputnik moment â" partly because itâs not entirely clear what was tested, but mostly because the threat of a Chinese nuclear attack on the United States isnât remotely new,â Acton wrote.
In addition to its advances in hypersonic weapons, China has been expanding its network of underground silos that could be used to launch intercontinental-range nuclear missiles, and it has rebuffed US calls to join nuclear arms control talks. The US also has raised concerns about what it calls Chinese efforts to intimidate Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as part of its territory, and to claim disputed islands and other land features in the South China Sea.
AP
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