It is no secret that in the field of hypersonic missiles, the Americans are completely lagging behind other countries is currently a consensus in the whole world. Even the hypersonic missiles developed by Iran have made the US aircraft carrier battle group suffocated. Just like the hypersonic weapons of the Americans are not only the slowest, but also do not massively equip the army.
But even so, the U.S. government is still saying every day: there will be, there will be, there will be anything.
As a result, some time ago, senior defense and military officials of the United States, at a hearing in the armed forces of the House of Representatives, for the first time publicly admitted that they are lagging behind the world, especially China, in the field of hypersonic weapons, at least by at least seven or even nine years.
Here's what Jeffrey McCormick, intelligence analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency's National Aerospace Intelligence Center, said at the hearing: China has a world-leading hypersonic arsenal that is the culmination of China's massive advancement of conventional and nuclear weapons technology and capabilities over the past 20 years through intensive and targeted investment, development, testing, and deployment.
Of course, he is not the only one who blows about Chinese hypersonic weapons at the scene.
The chairman of the hearing said that the development of hypersonic missiles is currently the most urgent defense project of the United States. And the United States will allocate corresponding funds in the future to assist in the research of hypersonic weapons.
At present, both Russia and China have achieved the three-base launch of hypersonic weapons on land, sea and air. For example, the three hypersonic weapons currently deployed on the mainland, including DF-17, DF-27 and YJ-21, of which the first and second are land-based, and the third is sea-based. In addition, the mainland's H-6K strategic bomber also has the ability to carry hypersonic missiles to carry out standoff strikes. Through land-based and sea-based launches, the mainland has basically completely covered all targets within the second island chain, and if the H-6K combined with air refueling mode is used to attack through stand-off strikes, it can even directly attack the US Pacific Fleet Command in Hawaii.
If Chinese hypersonic weapons are characterized by advanced, then Russian hypersonic weapons are characterized by comprehensiveness. At present, Russia has hypersonic missiles such as Kinzhal, Zircon and Avangard, which can be divided into three categories: rocket-propelled, gliding and air-breathing according to the propulsion method. These missiles are suitable for a variety of different scenarios and have enough combat experience.
Iran currently has only one hypersonic missile, although Iran itself has no actual combat experience in using hypersonic missiles, and the technical level of the missile itself is not as good as that of Russia and China, but the Houthis have used hypersonic missiles to attack US destroyers before, and have achieved serious damage to US warships. Considering that Yemen's Houthis do not currently have the capability to mass-produce high-precision weapons, I suspect that their hypersonic weapons are Iranian.
Instead, look at the Americans' own hypersonic weapons program, which currently has two projects, LRHW and ARRW, which are the Army and Navy Superb Projects, and the Air Force Superb Projects. The tragedy is that neither of these projects succeeded, and both failed missile projects after many tests.
In 2021, the U.S. Army even engaged in a set of hypersonic missile Mooney training models for soldiers to use for training and operation of hypersonic weapons, but as a result, the U.S. Army's missile unit trained on this set of simulation equipment for three years, and did not see its own hypersonic missiles for three years.
This has directly led to the loss of strategic security of the aircraft carrier battle group that the United States is proud of. After all, no matter how many aircraft carriers you have, how many warships you have in the aircraft carrier battle group, how dense the air defense network is, you don't have hypersonic missiles, you are not qualified to drive aircraft carriers out of port. Just like before, China's aircraft carriers were not equipped with stealth fighters and were not qualified to fight at sea.
Even if the United States now has 20 aircraft carrier battle groups, it will not work. The Houthis were able to use more backward hypersonic missiles from Iran to confront a US carrier strike group head-on and seriously damage a destroyer, not to mention China and Russia, whose hypersonic missiles were even more advanced. In 2023, the United States used the parameters of DF-17 and DF-27 as the basis for wargames, and as a result, under three waves of 24 missiles, the US aircraft carrier formation in the South China Sea was completely wiped out.
This is also the reason why the Americans do not dare to further provoke China after instigating the escalation of the situation in the South China Sea, triggering a war: there is no bottom, and they don't know if they can fight it. After all, in the current competition between the United States and China, the United States is in its own global hegemony, and if it fails, the national debt crisis that the United States is currently facing may explode directly.
Here is a suggestion that the Americans, if they do not dare to fight with China, they should honestly accept the reality that they have become the second largest in the world. Take back the paws of the dogs that have stretched themselves out into the world. Maybe there will be a decent ending.