Adam Schwarze is a Navy SEAL lieutenant and naval special warfare officer who completed several deployments in the Middle East with the US Marines. Currently pursuing a graduate degree at Harvard University, Adam Schwarze has a focus on areas such as international relations and nuclear deterrence.
One emerging, potentially nuclear threat involves China’s recent test of a hypersonic missile system. Termed a "Sputnik moment” by the Joint Chiefs Chairman, the test was of an Earth-orbiting system that travels five times the speed of sound and is able to evade current US missile defenses. This could potentially boost China’s nuclear capabilities, despite the US having approximately 1,500 nuclear weapons deployed and China only possessing an arsenal 20 percent as large.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that the test was not of a missile, but of a spacecraft, and that is technically correct. The system functioned similar to a space shuttle that briefly touches orbit and then glides back to earth. The critical difference is that there was no landing gear and it had a hold that could contain a nuclear payload.
The system opens up the possibility of attacking from virtually any direction, including the South Pole. Because intercontinental ballistic missiles have a standard North Pole orientation, US early warning radar and missile defenses are not set up to guard southern routes. In addition, aircraft carriers and airfields more than a thousand miles from the Chinese mainland could be targeted in as little as 15 minutes.
Despite what has been described as major bureaucratic hurdles, the Pentagon is now working with the US Armed Forces to test its own advanced hypersonic design. This seems likely to accelerate an already intense US-China-Russia arms race.
One emerging, potentially nuclear threat involves China’s recent test of a hypersonic missile system. Termed a "Sputnik moment” by the Joint Chiefs Chairman, the test was of an Earth-orbiting system that travels five times the speed of sound and is able to evade current US missile defenses. This could potentially boost China’s nuclear capabilities, despite the US having approximately 1,500 nuclear weapons deployed and China only possessing an arsenal 20 percent as large.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that the test was not of a missile, but of a spacecraft, and that is technically correct. The system functioned similar to a space shuttle that briefly touches orbit and then glides back to earth. The critical difference is that there was no landing gear and it had a hold that could contain a nuclear payload.
The system opens up the possibility of attacking from virtually any direction, including the South Pole. Because intercontinental ballistic missiles have a standard North Pole orientation, US early warning radar and missile defenses are not set up to guard southern routes. In addition, aircraft carriers and airfields more than a thousand miles from the Chinese mainland could be targeted in as little as 15 minutes.
Despite what has been described as major bureaucratic hurdles, the Pentagon is now working with the US Armed Forces to test its own advanced hypersonic design. This seems likely to accelerate an already intense US-China-Russia arms race.
