China’s military is deploying ultra-high-speed missiles at a rate that poses an increasing threat of nuclear and conventional attacks on the United States, a senior Defense Intelligence Agency official told Congress on Friday.
Paul F. Freisthler, chief scientist at DIA, testified that Beijing has aggressively developed and fielded multiple types of hypersonic missiles, including gliders and “scramjet”-powered cruise missiles that maneuver to targets at more than five times the speed of sound to avoid detection.
“We are behind, and I am concerned we are not doing enough to close the gap as our adversaries continue to test and develop new capabilities at a much faster rate,” he said. China’s medium-range DF-17 missile is equipped with a hypersonic strike vehicle with a range of at least 1,000 miles, “enabling it to reach U.S. military forces in the western Pacific,” Mr. Freisthler said.
Russia intends to expand its strategic hypersonic missile arsenal in the coming years by deploying multiple hypersonic glide vehicles such as its new Sarmat ICBM. It is also building another air-launched hypersonic, long-range missile called the Kh-95, he said. Mr. Lamborn said at Friday’s hearing that the United States led development of hypersonic technology in the 1980s but “decided not to pursue hypersonic weapons.”
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said vague testimony from the officials indicated operational plans for using new hypersonic weapons have not yet been worked out. The DIA’s Mr. Freisthler said hypersonic weapons are designed to evade U.S. sensors and missile defense systems and “pose an increasing and complex threat due to the availability of both nuclear and conventional capabilities, challenging flight profiles, and maneuverability.”
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