Chinese Hypersonic Weapon Fired a Missile Over South China Sea
Demetri Sevastopulo | Financial Times
China’s hypersonic weapon test in July included a technological advance that enabled it to fire a missile as it approached its target travelling at least five times the speed of sound — a capability no country has previously demonstrated. Pentagon scientists were caught off guard by the advance, which allowed the hypersonic glide vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft that can carry a nuclear warhead, to fire a separate missile mid-flight in the atmosphere over the South China Sea, according to people familiar with the intelligence.
China Is Expanding Its Effort to Launch Weapons From Hypersonic Missiles
Alastair Gale | Wall Street Journal
China is expanding its capacity to develop weapons that can be fired from hypersonic missiles, suggesting a test this summer that surprised U.S. military officials with its technological accomplishment is part of a program to create new threats for U.S. missile defenses. The state-controlled AVIC Aerodynamics Research Institute said it is set to open a new wind tunnel capable of replicating the speeds and high temperatures faced by hypersonic missiles. The new wind tunnel’s roles include testing the “separation and release” of weapons from hypersonic vehicles, the institute said in a news release Sunday.
Xi Says China Ready to Sign ASEAN's Nuclear Arms-Free Zone Treaty
Shotaro Tani | Nikkei Asia
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Monday that Beijing was ready to sign a Southeast Asia nuclear weapon-free treaty, in an apparent response to the new AUKUS defense pact between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. The Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, otherwise known as the Bangkok Treaty, was signed in 1995 by the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The treaty stipulates that its signatories cannot "develop, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or have control over nuclear weapons," "station or transport nuclear weapons by any means," or "test or use nuclear weapons."
Raytheon, Northrop, Lockheed to Compete for Hypersonic Interceptor
Theresa Hitchens | Breaking Defense
The Missile Defense Agency has tapped Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to compete in developing a new Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI), a defensive hypersonic weapon designed to take out adversary hypersonic missiles midcourse during their unpowered flight. Raytheon Missiles and Defense was awarded $20.97 million; Lockheed Martin, $20.94 million; and Northrop Grumman, $18.95 million, according to MDA’s contract announcement today. Concept designs for prototypes from each vendor are due by September 2022.
UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Presses for More Access in Iran
Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell| ABC News
The head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog met Tuesday with Iranian officials to press for greater access in the Islamic Republic ahead of diplomatic talks restarting over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency yet again faces tightrope-style talks with Iranian officials as his inspectors remain unable to access surveillance footage and face greater challenges in trying to monitor Tehran's rapidly growing uranium stockpile.
Germany’s Nuclear Option: No Nukes
Matthew Karnitschnig | POLITICO
The question of where Germany stands on nuclear deterrence has become all the more urgent in recent weeks amid the tensions on the border between Belarus and Poland, where Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has been funneling migrants into the EU, a provocation many observers believe has been encouraged by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Most Germans are as blissfully ignorant of their country’s atomic pledge (a pillar of a Cold War-era deterrence doctrine known as nuclear sharing) as they are that Russia has stationed a considerable arsenal of nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad, just 500 kilometers from the German border. But with Germany’s fleet of nuclear-equipped bombers at the end of their lifespan, the country’s new government has to decide whether it wants to be a NATO partner in name only. For many observers, the answer is clear.