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China has been testing a new strike vehicle that carries nuclear or conventional warhead, reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, Bill Gertz, recently revealed. The experiment, that took place at the start of the month, is the fourth in the course of the last 18 months and was a significant breakthrough in the country’s ballistic attack capabilities. The missile’s way to the target is at the edge of the atmosphere at a speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound. Its special manuvering abilities are somewhat of a tie-breaker against the American security against missiles measures as, today, those mostly rely on the ability to predict the missile’s route, thus navigating interception in a collision course with the attacking missile. The high cruise speed and abilities of evasion of the chinese missile might prevent the U.S. means of detection from discovering the missile before it’s too late. Furthermore, even if the missile is revealed, it can evade any threat making its way towards it.
The fact that this is the fourth experiment in the course of 18 months proves the Republic of China’s serious intentions regarding improving its ballistic attack capabilities. Experts estimate that if the rate of progress stays the same, China will, in a year or two, be able to spread the system operationally and to threaten the U.S. and its allies more effectively. Furthermore, some professionals estimate that in light of the rate and character of China’s military developement, the best way to defend against this threat will be weapons that make use of high energy, such as laser. Another opinion states that the U.S. will have to accelerate its pace in producing hypersonic weapons of its own to deal with this new Chinese threat.
An arms race mindset isn’t new in the world and there have been cases leading almost to the brink of war. If the world does continue to make its way towards more advanced and destructive weapons, it may just be that the 4th world war will really be with sticks and stones, as Einstein claimed. However, a military-technological race can be developed in more positives ways such as developing UAVs meant to save lifes in disasters, like the Fukushima nuclear reactor, or making use of nano-technology to develop bodies that can travel inside our own bodies, curing us of diseases. Defending countries is highly important and until there’s utopian world peace there’s no alternative to developing means of war, but it might be possible to also focus on saving lives and improving them.
