STRATCOM General Warns: US Is Powerless Against Hypersonic Missile Attacks From China, Russia
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Wed, 03/21/2018
The United States is extremely vulnerable to future attack via hypersonic missiles and is falling behind in the technological know-how to defend the homeland from the threat, the commander of the United States Strategic Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
“The first, most important message I want to deliver today is that the forces under my command are fully ready to deter our adversaries and respond decisively, should deterrence ever fail. We are ready for all threats. No one should doubt this,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command said in his opening statement.
However, in a follow-on conversation with Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, Hyten cautioned:
What Hyten suggests, as of today, the U.S. is powerless against hypersonic weapon threats and has to rely on deterrence against these so-called hypersonic weapons.
Hyten added, “so our response would be our deterrent force which would be the triad and the nuclear capabilities that we have to respond to such a threat.”
In other words, if Russia or China launches a hypersonic missile attack on the U.S., the Pentagon will respond with nuclear war.
Sen. Inhofe then asked America’s top nuclear commander to describe what a hypersonic weapon is and what it does.
“A hypersonic threat is a system that starts out ballistic, so you will see it like a ballistic missile, but then it depresses the trajectory and flies more like a cruise missile or airplane,” Hyten said.
“It goes up into the low reaches of space and then turns immediately back down and then levels out and flies at a very high level of speed. That’s a hypersonic weapon,” he said.
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