Thread by @TelegraphWorld

🔴 Over the weekend, it emerged that the Chinese military in August secretly launched a rocket carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle into space.

It flew around the globe through low-orbit space before returning to Earth
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

🚀While the missile reportedly missed its target by about two dozen miles, the test shows China has made rapid progress on the lightning-fast weapons and is far more advanced than US intelligence officials had realised.

“We have no idea how they did this,” one official said

Drew Thompson, a former American defence department official with responsibility for China, said the test “really should change US calculations”.

“I think it is a game changer in a way that little else has really shifted the balance”

🌏Countries including the US, UK, Russia and North Korea have all been working on developing hypersonic missiles

Hypersonic missiles have strategic advantages:

➡️They travel at 5x the speed of sound
➡️They have increased manoeuvrability that can make them very difficult to counter
➡️They fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, meaning they can potentially reach targets faster

🇺🇸The US has recently pivoted its defence and intelligence operations to focus more on China

🇨🇳Earlier this month, the CIA announced the creation of a new China Mission Center that would bring more resources to studying the country and better position officers around the world to analyse its activities

Read the full report ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…