China: Ultrasonic Missile Test Launched in Flight - Concern in US
China has tested an ultrasonic rocket with technology that neither the United States nor Russia possess. The projectile fired was five times faster than the sound.
The China moved this summer to test a supersonic missile, capable of firing in turn a projectile, a technology which they have neither the US nor Russia at present, writes today the Wall Street Journal newspaper.
Confirming information published in the Financial Times on Sunday, the American newspaper reports that China conducted the test in July, during which a missile was fired by the supersonic rocket in flight. The test shows that China's capabilities are greater than previously thought, the paper added, citing US sources, whom it did not name.
According to the Financial Times, "experts from Darpa, the Pentagon's intelligence service, do not know how China managed to launch a missile from a rocket that was moving at supersonic speeds," five times faster than sound. They also do not know what kind of missile fell into the sea, according to the British newspaper, citing people who have access to intelligence information. Some experts believe that it was an air-to-air missile, others believe that it was a missile-bait, the purpose of which is to protect the supersonic missile in the event of a collision.
According to the Athenian and Macedonian News Agency, the Financial Times wrote in October that Beijing fired a supersonic rocket that orbited the Earth before hitting its target in August, although it did not succeed as it fell several kilometers away. . Beijing then denied it was a rocket, claiming it had tested a reusable spacecraft. However, US General Mark Milli a few days later referred to "a very important test of an ultrasonic weapon system", without specifying when it took place. He also compared this test to the launch in October 1957 of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite from the former USSR, which surprised the United States and accelerated the race for space.
