Biden’s Military Lags Far Behind China In Hypersonic Capability

The U.S. military under President Joe Biden is now even further behind rivals Russia and China in developing hypersonic missile technology and having the weapons ready for war.

Of note is Beijing’s test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile over two years ago. The missile topped 15,000 miles per hour to fly at least 20 times faster than the speed of sound. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon is frantically playing catchup with potential adversaries. Billions are earmarked in the defense budget to erase this gap, and private sector partners are being sought to address the shortcoming in technology.

The outlet noted that the military has already spent billions on research and development since the 1950s on hypersonic capabilities. However, it was deemed unnecessary and subsequently abandoned, even as other military technologies raced ahead.

Retired Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Hyten told the Journal that his worry over the lack of advancement in hypersonic weapons “is only increasing. We need to move faster in multiple directions.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is laser-focused on ensuring that proper pronoun usage is ingrained in the military. 

Experts warn that the U.S. is falling further behind other global leaders and leaving itself and its allies exposed. 

University of Colorado Boulder professor of aerospace engineering Iain Boyd issued a stern warning. “Basically, if somebody fired hypersonic weapons at the West today, we wouldn’t know until it’s too late that these weapons were on top of us.” 

Boyd told ABC News Daily that the fact that the new missiles are fast is nothing new. Hypersonic technology has been around since the 1950s. 

The older systems follow a straight line and are relatively easy to track. The newer hypersonic missiles in the Russian and Chinese arsenals, however, are able to maneuver and avoid detection by defense systems. 

Boyd said they are currently capable of going “from side to side, they can go up and down, and this makes it much more difficult to predict where they’re going to go.”

Other experts, however, assert that the danger from hypersonic missiles is “over-hyped.” Andrew Davies, senior fellow at the Australian Defense Policy Institute, admitted they are hard to defend against but said at high speeds they are limited in change of direction.