“You can't call them [Russia and China] our friends if they're building weapons that can destroy the United States of America,” the US top nuclear commander said Tuesday.
Speaking at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, US General John Hyten insisted that Beijing and Moscow are not “our friends” as they accelerate development of advanced hypersonic weapons.
“I always wish we started [working on hypersonics] five years ago or 10 years ago because then we wouldn't be worried… but we didn't, so we have to step up now, and we are,” CNBC quoted the general as saying.
Hyten placed extra emphasis on detecting the threat of hypersonic weapons, Defense News reported. “If you can't see and characterize the threat, I don't care what kind of shooter you have; there is nothing you can do about it. So the most important thing is, [when] you look at all the threats that are coming together — hypersonics, et cetera — is that we have to be able to see that threat.”
In March, Hyten told the Senate Armed Services Committee, “We don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a [hypersonic] weapon against us.”
Then-commander of US Pacific Command Adm. Harry Harris lamented the US' lapses in hypersonic capabilities development earlier this year in testimony before Congress in February. Harris, who is now US ambassador to South Korea, said Beijing was zooming past the US in the field…
