BOMARC missile
Posted on 01/15/2014 3:42:39 PM PST by James C. Bennett
Just what we need, another arms race. China's stepping up its bid for ballistic missile superiority, having just successfully test-fired the country's first hypersonic missile delivery vehicle, one capable of penetrating American air defenses to potentially deliver nuclear warheads. The Pentagon is not amused.
The WU-14 hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is part of China's extremely secretive missile development program, which has been quietly modernizing the country's conventional and nuclear missile systems. The missile test itself was not broadcast among any public channels but was detected, an anonymous Pentagon official confirmed with the Washington Free Beacon, flying at extremely high speeds over mainland China on January 9. And while details of the HGV are very slim at this point, analysts believe it works much like the HGV's developed by other nations including the US, India and Russia.
It's assumed that the HGV is launched aboard an ICBM, separates from the missile's final stage while still in space, some 62 miles above the planet's surface, and then zooms back into the atmosphere at more than ten times the speed of sound—around mach 10 or 7,680 miles per hour. That's fast enough to enter American airspace before we even react. By comparison, today's cruise missile technology tops out at around 500 to 600 mph.
This prospect does not sit well with many members of Congress, including Republican House Armed Services Committee members Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, Rep. Randy Forbes and Rep. Mike Rogers. The three issued a joint statement last Tuesday calling for a redoubling of American efforts to maintain pace with the rate of Chinese military developments.
"While round after round of defense cuts have knocked America's technological advantage on its back, the Chinese and other competitor nations push towards military parity with the United States; in some cases, as in this one, they appear to be leaping ahead of us," the statement read. "This situation does nothing to support peaceful coexistence in the Pacific. We have dithered for three decades now, delaying badly needed replacement equipment for our troops, relying on hardware that was built during the Reagan years."
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool, a Marine Corps spokesman who confirmed that the test took place, was decidedly non-plussed however. He told the Washington Free Beacon:
"We routinely monitor foreign defense activities and we are aware of this test. However, we don't comment on our intelligence or assessments of foreign weapon systems. We encourage greater transparency regarding their defense investments and objectives to avoid miscalculation."
You know, miscalculations like a worldwide thermonuclear holocaust. [Washington Times - Defense Tech - RT - Washington Free Beacon.
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They don’t need it to be fast. Hell Obastard would just order our missile defense to ‘stand down’
They wasted a lot of money on that..
NSA too busy monitoring citizens, gun owners and pro-lifers. Nothing to see or hear over there.
By Bill Gertz
November 04, 2013
The Obama administration declined to comment on Sunday on provocative state-run Chinese media reports outlining Beijing’s nuclear war plans, including land-based and submarine-launched missile strikes on U.S. cities that would kill up to 12 million people.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf and Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith would not respond when asked about the highly unusual Chinese reports published Oct. 28 in numerous major Communist Party-controlled television and newspaper outlets.
The Chinese reports included maps showing nuclear strikes on Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest, along with the resulting radiation plumes stretching thousands of miles across the western United States.
Global Times, viewed as China’s most xenophobic anti-U.S. media outlet, stated in its report that “the 12 JL-2 [submarine-launched ballistic missile] nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans.” The newspaper is a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, the organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. ..."
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US worried about China’s nuke bombers hitting military bases
Nov 20, 2013
The United States is gravely concerned about China’s new long-range nuclear bombers that can target previously unreachable US military bases in the Pacific, according to a new report.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission warns in its annual report that China is "rapidly expanding and diversifying" its ability to strike US bases, ships and aircraft throughout the Pacific, even places like Guam that were previously out of reach, The Foreign Policy magazine reported on Wednesday.
The House Armed Services Committee is set to discuss China’s Hongzha-6K bomber at a hearing on Wednesday when members of the commission will testify about their report.
The US military has made Guam a key strategic military hub in the western Pacific as part of Washington’s new “pivot” strategy of realigning American forces toward Asia.
The report warned that China has become increasingly aggressive in the way it handles issues with US allies such as the Philippines and Japan.
"Although sovereignty disputes in the East and South China Seas are not new, China's growing diplomatic, economic, and military clout is improving China's ability to assert its interests," according to the report.
"It is increasingly clear that China does not intend to resolve the disputes through multilateral negotiations or the application of international laws and adjudicative processes but instead will use its growing power in support of coercive tactics that pressure its neighbors to concede to China's claims," it added.
China’s new drone, which resembles the MQ-9 Reaper, can be armed with Hellfire missiles, bombs and other weapons.
The commission also warned about the growth of the Chinese navy.
"By 2020, barring a US naval renaissance, it is possible that China will become the world's leading military shipbuilder in terms of the numbers of submarines, surface combatants and other naval surface vessels produced per year," said the report, citing Chinese military experts Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins.
This is while the United States has planned to conduct more joint military exercises in western Pacific and encircle China with a chain of small air bases and military ports.
China is considering the Pentagon’s focus on the “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific as a strategy to counter China’s increasing global influence.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/11/20/335709/us-worried-about-chinas-nuke-bombers/
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"On December 3, The Beijing Times reported that Chinese experts are discussing whether the People’s Liberation Army could establish a missile base on the Moon. Per the Taiwan-based, English-language site Want China Times:
An expert from the China National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration Programme Center told the [Beijing Times]that China plans to send its first astronaut to the moon by 2030. By 2050, the moon could become a base from which to send the country's manned spacecraft to explore deep space, the source said. [Want China Times]
Innocent enough, right? But the source added that the Moon could be transformed into a deadly weapon. Like the Death Star in Star Wars, the Moon could be used as a military battle station, bristling with ballistic missiles that could be launched against any military target on Earth.
Lest you think this is all science fiction, there has been a worrying trend toward a militarization of space. Officially, the Outer Space Treaty bars states from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit around Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes. China, the United States, and Russia are all party to this treaty. ..."
Yet in 2011, Wikileaks leaked documents showing that the United States and China had both shot down their own satellites using sophisticated missiles, with each country attempting to show the strength of its respective military capabilities in space.
http://theweek.com/article/index/254228/why-does-chinas-moon-rover-exhibit-show-a-nuclear-mushroom-cloud-over-europe
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"I will not weaponize space"
"I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems"
-- Barack Obama, 2007 campaign trail
Are you sure it wasn’t Iran? That’s who Congress is worried about.
Not to mention we spend far more tax dollars on entitlements than we do the military.
Sorry Taiwan.
China-Russia Yellow Sea naval drills begin
AP via Yahoo News ^ | April 22, 2012
BEIJING (AP) — China and Russia launched joint naval exercises Sunday that highlight warming ties between their militaries and growing cooperation in international affairs.
[snip]
"It's an excellent exchange for China to be able to drill jointly in such sensitive areas," Yin told CCTV.
[snip]
Much of that cooperation takes place within the confines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping of Central Asian states that seeks to check U.S. influence in the region and began holding joint drills in 2005.
Formerly Cold War rivals for leadership of the communist world, China and Russia have since found common ground in countering liberal democratizing trends across Asia and Eastern Europe and frequently vote against Western initiatives in the United Nations Security Council. ..."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
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"Joint war games are a logical outcome of the Sino-Russian Friendship and Cooperation Treaty signed in 2001, and reflect the shared worldview and growing economic ties between the two Eastern Hemisphere giants."
http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2005/09/war-games-russia-china-grow-alliance
If it needs an ICBM to get it into space, then it's a reentry vehicle. It gets there no faster than a standard ICBM warhead. What it DOES bring to the party is perhaps the ability to maneuver on its way to the target, to evade anti-missile defenses.
The ICBM which launches it will also generate a thermal signature that our satellites will spot.
All of this is thanks to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
They can test fire it into Detroit, help demolish a few old abandoned buildings.
The only missle we’ll get from Obummer is the BOHICA.
The big bad super sonic missile cannot out fly the “speed of light” under which our new lasers can shoot down any incoming missile, but, don't let that settled argument get in the way of your scare tactics about the new Chinese super sonic missile that can “blow through the United States missile defense.”
In fact, our new lasers can destroy the missile BEFORE it is launched!
Good God, wake up!
The ICBM which launches it will also generate a thermal signature that our satellites will spot.
X-51 WaveRider could be militarized very quickly, I'm guessing.
I say could. Present political conditions make that very unlikely. In fact, I won't be surprised if X-51 is defunded. Too expensive. Diverts needed dollars from vote-buying activities.
I have a retired air force friend who told me that the Chinese are stealing our technology at an alarming rate. He also said that they can bring it to production faster than we can. Part of the problem (he used the C-17 as an example) he said is that when a weapons system is paraded before Congress unless every state senator can get his state a piece of the action the program will be stalled. It comes out to 1 year (China) vs 10 yrs. (U.S.). We have lots of problems folks. He also said that the real threat is carbon nanotube technology. If China wins that race it’s game over for us.
Fifteen years ago China was reported to be on the cusp of employing a supercaveating torpedo.
Can I get a source on those laser weapons please? (not doubting you, just very interested).
Last I had heard, many of those programs were shut down (specifically one laser mounted in an air frame).
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