
Russia and China seem to have broken the strength of the U.S. military following a report released by Government Accountability Office (GAO) that theΒ U.S. now lacks the defenses needed to protect against a new breed of highly sophisticated hypersonic weapons.
Russia and China have intensified efforts to ensure the technological move yield the desired result.
βChina and Russia are pursuing hypersonic weapons because their speed, altitudeΒ and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities.
βThere are no existingΒ countermeasures,βΒ the reportΒ said.
A video posted by the Defense Ministry Sunday showed a MiG-31 fighter jet launching a Kinzhal (Dagger) missile during a training flight.
The ministry said the missile, which carried a conventional warhead, hit a practice target at a firing range in southern Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kinzhal flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, has a range of more than 1,250 miles and can carry a nuclear or a conventional warhead.
The military said itβs capable of hitting both land targets and navy ships.
The U.S. military has been busily ramping up its hypersonic weapons capabilities.
In April, the PentagonΒ announcedΒ a deal with Lockheed Martin to develop a βhypersonic conventional strike weaponβ for the U.S. Air Force.
The deal for the air-launched Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) is worth up to $928 million.
Four months later, the Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a contract of up to $480 million to design a second hypersonic prototype, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).
βThe ARRW and HCSW efforts are developing unique capabilities for the warfighter and each has different technical approaches.
βThe ARRW effort is βpushing the art-of-the-possibleβ by leveraging the technical base established by the Air Force/DARPA partnership.
βThe HCSW effort is using mature technologies that have not been integrated for an air-launched delivery system,βΒ explained the Air Force, in aΒ statement.
In its response to the GAO, the Department of Defense described the report as βan accurate although sobering macro picture of how the US stands in the world against emerging threats.β







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