Beijing:
China has tested a new space capability with a hypersonic missile, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
The report, citing various sources familiar with the test, mentioned Beijing in August launched a nuclear-capable missile that circled the Earth at low orbit prior to descending toward its target, which 3 sources mentioned it missed by more than 20 miles (32 kilometers).
FT sources mentioned the hypersonic glide automobile was carried by a Long March rocket, launches of which it ordinarily announces, even though the August test was kept beneath wraps.
The report added that China’s progress on hypersonic weapons “caught US intelligence by surprise.”
Along with China, the United States, Russia and at least 5 other nations are working on hypersonic technologies.
Hypersonic missiles, like classic ballistic missiles which can provide nuclear weapons, can fly at more than 5 occasions the speed of sound.
But ballistic missiles fly higher into space in an arc to attain their target, although a hypersonic flies on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, potentially reaching a target more immediately.
Crucially, a hypersonic missile is maneuverable (like the substantially slower, typically subsonic cruise missile), producing it tougher to track and defend against.
While nations like the United States have created systems created to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, the capacity to track and take down a hypersonic missile remains a query.
China has been aggressively establishing the technologies, seeing it as vital to defend against US gains in hypersonic and other technologies, according to a current report by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The reported test comes as US-China tensions have mounted and Beijing has stepped up military activity close to Taiwan, the self-ruling US-aligned democracy that Beijing considers a province awaiting reunification.
The Pentagon did not straight away respond to an AFP request for comment on the FT report.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)