US wary of China and Russia in missile and nuclear race

The Missile Defense Review (MDR) that the Trump administration is conducting will examine threats from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missile attacks, and the latest hypersonic technologies, said Assistant Under Secretary of Defense for Policy David Joel Trachtenberg.

The US Missile Defense Review is still in progress and has not yet been completed, he said, adding that the MDR is being conducted on a broader scale to assess other emerging and developing defense technologies.

“We are looking at a range of threats, not just ballistic missile threats. It would include cruise missiles, new hypersonic technologies,” he said.

The MDR is expected to be released in the coming weeks, The Hill reported. The report is likely to propose a 2019 budget similar to what the Pentagon has previously proposed, which would spend $12.9 billion on missile defense and set aside $3.9 billion for the US Missile Defense Agency.

One step behind China?

The claims come just days after Chinese researchers revealed plans for a “hypersonic heavy bomber” that could reach New York City in two hours by traveling at “unprecedented” speeds.

According to some reports, this futuristic aircraft is capable of moving so fast that it can overcome missile defense systems, raising concerns that this type of technology could start World War III.

Current planes take about 14 hours to travel from Beijing, China to New York City, USA. This plane, if successful, could easily exceed the hypersonic speed of 343 m/s, and take just 2 hours to reach the same destination.

Last year, US conglomerate Lockheed Martin announced that it had made initial progress on its SR-72 hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft. However, this latest research appears to put China ahead in the speed race between Beijing and the US.

Risk of confrontation with Russia

In addition to the Missile Defense Report, in early February 2018, the US also released a nuclear policy report (NPR) that mentioned significant threats from both Russia and China.

This is a significant departure from the previous nuclear report conducted in 2010 under President Barack Obama, which concluded that the risk of nuclear confrontation with Russia and China had significantly decreased.

Mr. David admitted that the 2018 NPR of President Donald Trump's administration was released in early February and had a more pessimistic view of the threat of war between major countries in the world.

“The 2018 NPR draws conclusions based on a realistic assessment of the current strategic environment. Since the last NPR was conducted and published in 2010, the nuclear environment has changed and become more challenging,” he said./.