World Under Growing Shadow of Hypersonic Weapons Race

TaiwanPlus News

Russia recently used a hypersonic missile against Ukraine, as the global arms race to develop these weapons heats up. Countries are advancing their own hypersonic missile technology by adding more range and glide capabilities.

Transcript

00:00Traveling at 5 times the speed of sound, hypersonic missiles are spurring a new arms race.

00:11These weapons are not just fast, they are hard to detect, making them a challenge to

00:16defend against.

00:18China, Russia, the US, India and North Korea are thought to have developed their own versions

00:26of the missiles, but information about them is hard to come by as countries remain highly

00:32secretive about their capabilities.

00:38Russia fired its first Poreshnik missile against Ukraine last month, the first use of a hypersonic

00:43missile on the battlefield.

00:46Experts are now speculating what this means for the Russia-Ukraine war.

01:08Hypersonic weapons capabilities have existed since the mid-20th century, but a new set

01:14of technologies is making them more lethal and harder to detect.

01:19New developments allow a weapon to manoeuvre as it re-enters the atmosphere, travelling

01:25faster than a traditional ballistic missile and able to evade defence systems due to its

01:30unusual trajectory.

01:33This is called a hypersonic glide vehicle and so far, it is very hard to detect.

01:38As countries race to develop hypersonic missiles, others are working to upgrade missile defences.

01:45Some experts feel that this is just a transitionary phase and missile defences will eventually

01:51catch up to this kind of weapons.

01:55China and Russia have taken the lead in developing hypersonic missile technology.

02:01Last year, former US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Eccolino said the US is behind

02:07China in its hypersonic missile programme.

02:10He also said Washington needs to do more to catch up.

02:15Russian President Vladimir Putin in November threatened to use another hypersonic missile,

02:20next time arming it with a nuclear weapon.

02:37China has developed its own hypersonic glide vehicle, launched from the DF-17 medium-range

02:51ballistic missile, with a range between 1,800 and 2,500 kilometres.

03:00Experts believe the DF-17 would be the weapon of choice during a conflict in the Taiwan

03:04Strait.

03:06India also became the latest member of the hypersonic club last month with a test of

03:11its first long-range missile.

03:14The US is now trying to catch up with China and Russia with its own advanced hypersonic

03:19weapons.

03:20Recently, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed that the US

03:29and China will take steps to limit the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear decision-making,

03:36letting AI respond to a missile launch could result in a world-ending miscalculation.

03:42With new, deadly capabilities and defences trailing behind, hypersonic weapons are emerging

03:48as a destabilising factor in geopolitics.

03:52But one thing is clear, in this new arms race, those who can develop these weapons will do

03:57so.

03:58Adil Prad and Dolfin Chen for Taiwan Plus.

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