"One can target airfields and aircraft carriers, within 15 or 20 minutes of flight time, literally thousands of kilometers away from the Chinese mainland," he says. Griffin adds that the new intercontinental hypersonic missile could take that capability a step further. With or without a nuclear warhead, such weapons could potentially strike U.S. ships anywhere on Earth. "That is a really big deal," he says.
Let’s take his words critically then. In your view, what specifically is wrong with this statement explaining the capabilities of hypersonic missiles/spacecraft?
What's right with it? We have no way of knowing either way. But that doesn't mean we should just accept it. Especially when China itself has denied the that the recent test was of weapons. And as anyone who has watched Dr. Strangelove knows, a deterrent is useless when it's kept a secret.
China doesn't deny that the test of a hypersonic vehicle took place. The official line is that it's for spacecraft, which isn't wrong, but it could also just as easily be used as a missile, and China would be foolish not to pursue that capability when the US and everyone else is doing so. Such a missile would be a valuable deterrent against US aggression for the reasons outlined in the quote, and it seems this test was a pretty effective announcement.
I wonder if anything has changed in the twelve years since.
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/20/1047384050/behind-murky-claim-of-a-new-hypersonic-missile-test-there-lies-a-very-real-arms-
It's funny to take note of when people here are willing to take a DoD apparatchik's words at face value uncritically.
Let’s take his words critically then. In your view, what specifically is wrong with this statement explaining the capabilities of hypersonic missiles/spacecraft?
What's right with it? We have no way of knowing either way. But that doesn't mean we should just accept it. Especially when China itself has denied the that the recent test was of weapons. And as anyone who has watched Dr. Strangelove knows, a deterrent is useless when it's kept a secret.
China doesn't deny that the test of a hypersonic vehicle took place. The official line is that it's for spacecraft, which isn't wrong, but it could also just as easily be used as a missile, and China would be foolish not to pursue that capability when the US and everyone else is doing so. Such a missile would be a valuable deterrent against US aggression for the reasons outlined in the quote, and it seems this test was a pretty effective announcement.
If they don't have a weapon, then they don't have a weapon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯