🇨🇳 Over the weekend, it emerged that in August the Chinese military secretly launched a hypersonic missile into space
"The recent test is a reminder that any future war between great powers will look very different to the last," writes @nickallen789
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
🇺🇸The US could face catastrophic defeat by China or Russia in a hypersonic Third World War.
How much do you know about the hypersonic arms race? ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
⏩Hypersonic means travelling faster than the speed of sound, meaning there would be little time to react…
But, by at least how many times faster?
It's five!
🔊 Hypersonic means travelling above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound
⏩Unlike a ballistic missile Hypersonic Glide Vehicles are extremely manoeuvrable, allowing them to evade tracking and defences
🇨🇳China's DF-17 hypersonic missile can travel at 10 times the speed of sound (Mach 10) and carry a nuclear warhead
🇷🇺 But the Kremlin's pride and joy, the Avangard hypersonic missile, has reached a staggering Mach 27
❓How far did the Avangard missile travel when it was tested in December 2018?
It's 4000 miles.
🏙️ The missile can also carry a two-megaton nuclear warhead, enough to wipe out a city
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
🇺🇸It's fair to say there is some paranoia at the Pentagon about America's current predicament.
The US is now pouring money into hypersonic development in a bid to keep up…
❓But just how much?
💸It's $1 billion a year
The US expects to have its own hypersonic weapons in the 2020s, and hypersonic drones in the 2030s
🛰️In addition, the US is prioritising a huge defensive measure, with a plan to put a a "mega-constellation" of potentially hundreds of satellites into space to monitor hypersonic missiles
Read the full report from @nickallen789 ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.