Chinese hypersonic missiles pose threat to US: GOP congressman
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Russia has discussed hypersonic missiles several times and mey have what he called "primitive capabilities," but China remains the "pacing threat" in regards to hypersonics, GOP congressor Doug Lamborn said.
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Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-17 ballistic missiles roll during a parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019 (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn said on Friday that the hypersonic missiles developed by China are emerging as a strategic threat to the US and that Washington must allocate the necessary funds to research in order to develop such weapon systems.
"There are things on the horizon though that we need to be really giving attention to, funding research and development and making progress on… the hypersonic threat, especially China," Lamborn said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Lamborn added that Russia has discussed hypersonic missiles several times and may have what he called "primitive capabilities."
However, China remains the "pacing threat" in regard to hypersonics.
Read more: US to test hypersonic missiles in 2023, catch up with Russia & China
He further warned that China is planning to produce hundreds or thousands of weapons.
Lamborn recalled that President Joe Biden announced on March 3 that he would set up an industrial system that would enable the efficient production of hypersonic weapons, but noted that the US is far from reaching the level of China or even Russia.
"We do not have a viable offensive capability with hypersonics," Lamborn said, adding that no country has defense capabilities against hypersonic weapons.
Therefore, allocating funds to research for the development of such a weapon system is of primary concern, he said.
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US falls behind Russia, China hypersonic race
The National Interest highlighted on January 1 the weakness of the US in developing offensive hypersonic weapons, as well as in confronting them.
According to the outlet, the United States urgently needs to develop and deploy both offensive and defensive hypersonic weapons capabilities, because it is falling behind as China and Russia have both tested and deployed hypersonic missiles, while the United States is conducting its first successful hypersonic missile test in December 2022.
However, the US has not deployed any hypersonic weapons to date, and the existing US missile defense systems are not yet capable of shooting down adversaries' hypersonic weapons, leaving the US highly vulnerable at this time, NI wrote.
It is noteworthy that Washington conducted three “failed” hypersonic missile tests in 2021, according to Defense News.
Read more: Russia to respond if Japan's hypersonic missiles are threat: Deputy FM
The US Army announced on March 4 it will conduct two tests of new hypersonic weapons delivery systems this summer at White Sands Testing Grounds in New Mexico.
The weapons tests are planned to proceed almost simultaneously with the deployment of the first rounds of the systems.
Bush said, "We have got two big hypersonic tests coming at White Sands over the summer," adding that "they will be [almost] concurrent with getting the first hypersonic rounds deployed to Army units.
The tests will be conducted in collaboration with the US Navy, which is participating in the initiative to develop hypersonic weapons delivery systems in order to catch up with Russia and China, according to Bush.
"We are doing the program with the Navy. It is a new technology. We are going to learn from the testing," Bush explained.
