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Science & Technology
Who is winning the hypersonic missile race? Beijing's 21,000mph weapon has the biggest range of any known system - but US and Russia both have their own top secret programs in new global arms contest
2021-10-19
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Posted by:Skidmark

#16  Is Fauci he!ping fund their supersonic research?
Posted by: Jean DuSable   2021-10-19 17:18  

#15  Seems boost phase or just prior to HGV separation is the sweet spot for stopping it.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-10-19 14:44  

#14  The Chinese put a gliding reentry vehicle on a big honking booster rocket. That makes attacks going over the south pole (or pretty much any angle) possible. That avoids the antimissile defenses in Alaska and California, but not necessarily, shipboard antimissile defenses. The glide vehicle, by maneuvering, can theoretically outrun antimissile defenses by presenting an unpredictable flight path and causing the antimissile to dissipate its energy. But the Chinese will have to do better than a 28km miss. Even nukes are wasted at that distance.
Posted by: Titus Turkeyneck6948   2021-10-19 14:13  

#13  What this *sounds* like is developing steerable reentry vehicles for MIRV-ed ICBMs -- to avoid ABM defenses.
Posted by: magpie   2021-10-19 13:33  

#12  /\#4: ...I know perfectly well that there's more to it than that, but to the megalomaniacs who seem to be making Chinese policy these days the math is quite clear: they win.
IIRC, 85% of Chinese population is concentrated on less than 20% of their land area in the coastal plains along the rivers and in the major coastal cities. The US has enough nuclear weapons to turn that area into one large radioactive firestorm -- though the very thought of that action is repugnant. The "peasant in their rice fields" China that could outlast the invading Mongols and Japanese is not the urbanized China of today.

Unfortunately, as Mike said, the Chinese could very well start World War III in the same manner the Imperial Japan started their corner of WW2.
Posted by: magpie   2021-10-19 13:30  

#11  OK, get it in perspective. They have supersonic missiles. Our delivery systems are super sonic as well. This is just hype. Once the missile gets into space, it goes super sonic. They cant shoot down what we already have for retaliation. China also has nuclear mines in space, and I assume others do as well. And we have our subs. This is one race we can still dominate and not get all worked up about.

But at the end of the day China could hand carry it here and our bumbling president and congress will argue over which political party is to blame and never stop it or retaliate.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2021-10-19 13:27  

#10  Good ol' punitive expedition works for me. Worked for Rome.

Also worked for totalitarian Islam.

9/11 was an efficiently executed and politically successful punitive expedition.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2021-10-19 11:39  

#9  "Deterrence is the art of producing in the enemy the fear to attack."

- Dr. Strangelove
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-10-19 10:43  

#8  /\ Some"punitive expeditions" are successful, but later termed massacres of innocent civilians.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-10-19 10:09  

#7  Good ol' punitive expedition works for me. Worked for Rome.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-10-19 09:57  

#6  The US' response to a mass fatality war crime attack on the CONUS was an expensive therapeutic intervention (coupled with political and cultural appeasement) that ended in the US' and NATO's humiliating and shameful defeat.

Any rational adversary will take this precedent strongly into account when evaluating a potential response by the US; just as any such adversary decades earlier would have taken into account the response to Pearl Harbor.

The lesson of the 9/11 war is that a war crime attack on the US killing thousands of civilians is a winning move militarily, politically and culturally.

If there's no perceived political will to retaliate, there's no deterrence. War head gaps and missile gaps become irrelevant.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2021-10-19 09:00  

#5  If you hear the hypersonic missile air raid warning siren. Take shelter in an approved facility as depicted here. General Milley has assured us that they are NOT in the Chinese target folders.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-10-19 06:52  

#4  

#1 China's thirst to rule the world has just gone hypersonic: MARK ALMOND says terrifying new weapon raises the spectre of 'Dr Strangeloves' in Beijing calculating their chances of WINNING a nuclear war
Posted by: Skidmark 2021-10-19 05:32


As of August, the population of the PRC is estimated to be 1,445,690,926. The current population of the US is 333,410,743. They could kill every single one of us (not quite doable during the actual attack, but within the realm of practicality afterwards)and we could take out one Chinese citizen for every one of ours lost...and they would still have more than a billion souls left.

I know perfectly well that there's more to it than that, but to the megalomaniacs who seem to be making Chinese policy these days the math is quite clear: they win.

Mike

Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2021-10-19 06:12  

#3  What we are now seeing is the results of the political component of MAD (mutually assured destruction) breaking down. Our enemies perceive that the USA will not respond to a nuclear attack on our territory with an overwhelming response. If they attack during a GOPe administration, they can count on the deps to tie the government up in knots and if they attack during a dem administration, they can count on a total surrender between the time the attacking missile launch is detected and the impact of the warhead(s). In either case, the Pentagon will be loath to become involved in any retaliation as all their new woke dogmas tell them it's just rayciss.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-10-19 05:57  

#2  China DENIES claims it test-fired new hypersonic missile capable of carrying nuclear weapon and insists launch was just an 'experimental rocket intended for peaceful space exploration'
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-10-19 05:33  

#1  China's thirst to rule the world has just gone hypersonic: MARK ALMOND says terrifying new weapon raises the spectre of 'Dr Strangeloves' in Beijing calculating their chances of WINNING a nuclear war
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-10-19 05:32  

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