America is "very concerned" about what China is doing in the field of hypersonic missiles

The US permanent representative in charge of the disarmament file, Robert Wood, stressed Monday in Geneva that the United States is "very concerned" about what China is doing in the field of hypersonic (that is, hypersonic) missiles.

"We are very concerned about what China is doing in terms of hypersonic missiles," said the ambassador, who will leave his post next week after seven years in Geneva to return to Washington.

And the newspaper "Financial Times" wrote Saturday that China tested in August a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, which flew around the Earth in a low orbit before descending towards its target, but it failed by 32 km.

On Monday, China denied this information, noting that it had conducted a "routine experiment on a spacecraft aimed at testing the technology of reusable spacecraft," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters.

The US ambassador stressed that the Russians also have this hypersonic capability and emphasized that the US had "abstained from continuing" military development of this technology that identifies and maneuverable flying objects at Mach 5 or higher, making them difficult to detect and intercept.

But in the face of the development of this type of weapon, "we had no choice but to respond in the same ways," Ambassador Wood said.

The United States does not yet have hypersonic missiles in its arsenal, but it is working on it.

The US Army's scientific arm recently announced that it has successfully tested a hypersonic Hawk missile that uses atmospheric oxygen to burn.

The Pentagon is also developing a hypersonic glider called the Arrow, but its first mass test failed in April.

China demonstrated the DF-17 hypersonic missile in 2019. This medium-range (about 2,000 km) weapon in the form of a "glider" can carry nuclear warheads.

The missile mentioned by the Financial Times is different, and it can reach space and be placed in orbit, then re-pass through the atmosphere before hitting its target.

So its range will be much larger.

The Russians recently launched a hypersonic missile from a submarine, and at the end of 2019 they put into service the Avengard hypersonic missiles, with nuclear capabilities, and launched them by a ballistic missile.

According to the Russians, the Avangard is capable of reaching Mach 27 and changing course and altitude.

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