What we know about the rapid competition between America, China and רוסיה in the field of hypersonic weapons.
The US Air Force's $694 million contract with Lockheed Martin to produce a new hypersonic air-launched missile is the latest sign of the fast-moving arms race between the US, China and Russia.
Hypersonic missiles can move at a speed more than five times the speed of sound, equivalent to about 6,100 kilometers per hour. Some advanced types of these weapons are also able to drastically change their path as they move through the Earth's atmosphere, making them difficult to detect and track.
"What is particularly difficult to deal with some of the new hypersonic weapons is their combination of speed, maneuverability and flight path," Eva Sola, a senior defense and security researcher at the London-based Baltic International Security Center, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Release. These features may complicate the ongoing identification and tracking of the weapon and the prediction of its location at the moment of the destruction attempt."
Lockheed Martin says the production readiness of its new missile, known as the ARRW, will make this weapon one of the essential pieces of equipment for the US military to deal with emerging threats.
China and Russia, which have described their relationship as an "unrestricted partnership" since early 2022, are at the top of the list of countries whose military development the United States sees as a threat to itself.
Relying on mass production power, China has the largest arsenal of hypersonic weapons in the world. Russia is also ahead of America in terms of deployment and operational use of these weapons and used them during the full-scale attack on Ukraine.
Analysts estimate that if the current production process continues, the total hypersonic arsenal of China and Russia will reach 5,000 weapons by 2035, of which 4,000 will belong to China. Read the full version of this report on the Radio Farda website.