Opinion | China’s reported hypersonic missile test is not a ‘Sputnik moment’, but is still cause for concern

The test, should reports be accurate, is neither of drastically new technology nor does it showcase capabilities the US does not possess or has not already considered

Nevertheless, that China is developing such systems indicates it is seeking ways to circumvent and defeat the US’ missile defence system

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Chinese military vehicles carrying the DF-17 hypersonic missile pass by crowds during a parade, in Beijing on October 1, 2019, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Photo: AP

Published: 1:30am, 21 Oct 2021Updated: 2:25am, 21 Oct 2021

Cold War nostalgia is very fashionable, it seems. Most worryingly, perhaps, a bilateral nuclear arms race is again under way, which requires deeper examination.

The Financial Times on October 17 reported on a new military capability China had tested – a hypersonic orbital nuclear delivery system. According to the report, “the Chinese military launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle which flew through low-orbit space before cruising down towards its target”.

Such a system, which could strike a target anywhere on the globe, could be used for both a nuclear strike and deterrence.

Although China later said the report was inaccurate, and that the launched object was not a missile but a spacecraft, Beijing has been developing this technology for some time.

The media response has been unsurprisingly alarmist. The managing editor of Politico said the news had “all the elements of a Sputnik moment”. But the test is neither a Sputnik moment, nor something to be glibly dismissed.

A “Sputnik moment” usually refers to an event in which a rival shows a new capability that underlines a technology gap – originally this was the launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first Earth-orbiting satellite, by the Soviet Union in 1957, some four months before the US was able to do the same.

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