The launch of a Chinese ICBM tipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle, an ultrahigh-speed, maneuvering missile on July 27, 2021, was a fractional orbital launch. a space-enabled advantage,” the report said. military operations supported by space systems and are now seeking ways to expand their capabilities and deny the U.S. “Adversaries have observed more than 30 years of U.S. American experts and top officials have flagged the issue of a rapid militarization of space on multiple occasions in the last few years. The threats to US space assets have become exaggerated with China’s growing presence in space which was otherwise dominated by the US after the fall of the Soviet Union. United States’ Defense Satellite Communications System – Wikipedia The report, however, comes shortly after the United States announced that it was collaborating with its AUKUS partners-the United Kingdom and Australia to develop hypersonic missiles.Īccording to a new timeline, the Pentagon’s first hypersonic weapon might be delayed for up to a year, despite lawmakers’ protests that the Pentagon is trailing behind in a new technology that Russia has already proven in Ukraine and China has demonstrated in a space mission. Scott Berrier said, “The loss of space-based communication and navigation services could have a devastating impact on warfighters during a conflict - that’s one of the most serious scenarios anticipated.” Milley had famously described the test as “very close to a Sputnik moment” for American military planners. The test had sparked widespread concern and panic among the US military’s top brass. The report suggests that the hypersonic missile test last fall was a part of the Chinese stockpile of space arms geared at hitting US satellites used by the military for communications and precision-guided missiles.Ĭhina launched a hypersonic weapon test in July of last year, propelling a missile around the world at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Besides lagging behind Russia and China in hypersonic weapons technology, the US is waking up to a threat to its space assets.Īccording to a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report on space threats titled “Challenges to Security in Space - 2022,” released on April 12, China’s test of an orbiting hypersonic missile last year is a part of a developing arsenal of “space warfare” weapons.
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