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NS news of the weekend It sounded alarming: China, a rising military power, had unexpectedly fired a new space weapon two months ago. It circumnavigated the planet and then re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, gliding towards a target in Chinese territory at much faster than the speed of sound.
As a military capability, bombing a target from orbit in this way can overcome existing missile defenses. However, many experts expressed their skepticism about the report.
“We know nothing from reliable sources,” said Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell. who watches global space launches. McDowell said the U.S. military unit reporting on orbital events has not made public any information that matches the reported claim about a weapons test China conducted in August.
“Every aspect of this story bears question marks,” he added.
Has China really tested and developed a surprise space weapon? Here are some of the known military and technical points about the system, as well as some of the flight test responses and uncertainties.
What has been reported about China’s flight test?
The Financial Times on Saturday China reported In August, it conducted a flight test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that circumnavigated the globe before accelerating towards its target. The newspaper, which gave one of the rare details about the test, said the gun missed its target by about two dozen miles.
The report relied on various anonymous sources, including those who said the weapons test had taken U.S. intelligence by surprise. “We have no idea how they did it,” said an anonymous source, the newspaper said.
Did China admit to performing the test?
On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said that a reusable spacecraft, not a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, has been flight-tested. NS a regular news briefingChinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian described it as a routine test.
“There are many companies around the world doing similar tests,” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Zhao criticized It’s about China for making false claims and putting forward conspiracy theories by Western experts.
China initially gave August as the test date, but later said that vehicle testing took place in July. According to Bloomberg News. In September last year, State-owned company that oversees China’s space industry announces Testing of an experimental, reusable spacecraft that completes a flight in low Earth orbit.
Is it true that this test launch is a surprise?
Probably not. The most notable aspect of the story – China’s gun traveling the world before accelerating towards its target – is old stuff. technology Pioneered in the 1960s by the Soviet Union. It was then known as the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System or FOBS. It is so named because it never reaches a full orbit of the Earth, only a fraction of it.
David WrightA physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has long studied space developments, Dr.
“Any country that can put something into space can do it,” he said. “And given the complexity of the space program, we certainly shouldn’t be surprised that China is able to do it.”
Some experts see China as challenging US dominance in space exploration. Only in the last year soil samples returned from the moon, put it down A rover on Mars and two teams launched astronauts to the country’s new space station.
People are digging hundreds of new silos for long-range nuclear missiles, building an arsenal of anti-satellite weaponsand routinely more rockets into space than any country.
How has the Biden administration reacted?
The Pentagon spoke generally of China’s military steps but did not discuss the alleged test. “We will not comment on the details of these reports,” John F. Kirby, chief spokesman for the Department of Defense, said in a statement. “We’ve made clear our concerns about the military capabilities that China continues to pursue — capabilities that only raise tensions in the region and beyond.”
Speaking anonymously to reveal classified intelligence assessments, a senior US official said there were some doubts about how the Financial Times portrayed the Chinese test. It’s not the lack of a flight test, the official said, but the credibility of the newspaper’s depiction.
State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated that the Pentagon gave no details, but said in a daily briefing on Monday: “We are “deeply concerned” about the “rapid expansion” of China’s nuclear capabilities “including the development of new delivery systems”.
Eric Schmitt and Michael Crowley contributed to the news from Washington.
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