The United States said that they are not as advanced in hypersonic technologies as Russia and China – International panorama
WASHINGTON, November 21. / TASS /. The United States is not “as advanced” in hypersonic technology as Russia and China. About this, according to the newspaper PoliticoUS Space Force Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. David Thompson said Saturday.
“We are not as advanced in hypersonic programs as the PRC or the Russian Federation,” he said at an international security forum in Halifax, Canada. Thompson added that the US is “very quickly catching up” to match Beijing’s ability to do so.
Washington is working to “determine the type of satellite constellation” the US needs to use hypersonic missiles. “This is a new challenge, but it’s not that we don’t have an answer to this challenge. We just need to understand it, fully design and launch,” he said. According to him, there is no launch of such satellites into orbit, but the United States “is rapidly changing its approach and timing.”
Thompson made a point about how the slow and cautious defense procurement process is affecting competition. “The bureaucracy that we have built <...>has slowed us down in many areas. <...> The fact that for a couple of decades we didn’t have to move fast from the point of view. [наличия у нас] a competitor with such capabilities did not encourage us <...> act quickly, “he said.
Pentagon officials have repeatedly admitted that the United States has lagged behind Russia and China in the production of hypersonic weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 24, 2019, authorizes that for the first time in history Russia is ahead of other countries in terms of the development of advanced weapons, including hypersonic ones.