Russia recently used a hypersonic missile against Ukraine, as the global arms race to develop these weapons heats up. Countries are advancing their own hypersonic missile technology by adding more range and glide capabilities.
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00:00Traveling at 5 times the speed of sound, hypersonic missiles are spurring a new arms race.
00:11These weapons are not just fast, they are hard to detect, making them a challenge to
00:16defend against.
00:18China, Russia, the US, India and North Korea are thought to have developed their own versions
00:26of the missiles, but information about them is hard to come by as countries remain highly
00:32secretive about their capabilities.
00:38Russia fired its first Poreshnik missile against Ukraine last month, the first use of a hypersonic
00:43missile on the battlefield.
00:46Experts are now speculating what this means for the Russia-Ukraine war.
01:08Hypersonic weapons capabilities have existed since the mid-20th century, but a new set
01:14of technologies is making them more lethal and harder to detect.
01:19New developments allow a weapon to manoeuvre as it re-enters the atmosphere, travelling
01:25faster than a traditional ballistic missile and able to evade defence systems due to its
01:30unusual trajectory.
01:33This is called a hypersonic glide vehicle and so far, it is very hard to detect.
01:38As countries race to develop hypersonic missiles, others are working to upgrade missile defences.
01:45Some experts feel that this is just a transitionary phase and missile defences will eventually
01:51catch up to this kind of weapons.
01:55China and Russia have taken the lead in developing hypersonic missile technology.
02:01Last year, former US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Eccolino said the US is behind
02:07China in its hypersonic missile programme.
02:10He also said Washington needs to do more to catch up.
02:15Russian President Vladimir Putin in November threatened to use another hypersonic missile,
02:20next time arming it with a nuclear weapon.
02:37China has developed its own hypersonic glide vehicle, launched from the DF-17 medium-range
02:51ballistic missile, with a range between 1,800 and 2,500 kilometres.
03:00Experts believe the DF-17 would be the weapon of choice during a conflict in the Taiwan
03:04Strait.
03:06India also became the latest member of the hypersonic club last month with a test of
03:11its first long-range missile.
03:14The US is now trying to catch up with China and Russia with its own advanced hypersonic
03:19weapons.
03:20Recently, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed that the US
03:29and China will take steps to limit the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear decision-making,
03:36letting AI respond to a missile launch could result in a world-ending miscalculation.
03:42With new, deadly capabilities and defences trailing behind, hypersonic weapons are emerging
03:48as a destabilising factor in geopolitics.
03:52But one thing is clear, in this new arms race, those who can develop these weapons will do
03:57so.
03:58Adil Prad and Dolfin Chen for Taiwan Plus.