In This Nuclear Arms Race, China’s Hypersonic Gliders Are a Wake-Up Call
China probably wants more and better nukes not because it’s aggressive, but because it’s afraid.
They have hypersonic glide vehicles now.
Photographer: Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images
Too bad we as a species don’t have the luxury of worrying about just one existential threat at a time. We’re already rather busy with one — a pandemic — and about to talk our heads off about another — climate change — at the COP26 convention in Glasgow. Now we’re also reminded of a third, nuclear annihilation.
This summer, China apparently tested new hypersonic missile systems — as recently revealed by the Financial Times but officially denied by Beijing. What’s shocking about this isn’t that these new weapons can travel at about five times the speed of sound — existing ballistic missiles can go even faster. It’s that these new Chinese birds can glide around the world inside the atmosphere in any direction they want, while being guided remotely to their target.