US troops, bases & ships are vulnerable to China’s hypersonic superweapons due to Washington’s naivety, expert warns

The missile fell "harmlessly" into the South China Sea.

Its role remains unknown as commentators speculated that the missile could've been used to target or deflect a power’s defenses against a potential hypersonic attack.

Officials in Washington were left scrambling as the test caught them off-guard.

Sam Armstrong, of the Henry Jackson Society, told The Sun: “We’re led to believe that the West was unaware of China’s hypersonic missile.

"Should it be true, it does lead us to question ‘Why are our leaders so naïve about China’s intentions?'”

Armstrong continued: “After the Cold War, there was a degree of naivety and hubris among Western foreign policy elites as they thought they had won the great battle of ideas.”

He warned that China is developing weapons at a speed that are designed to take out enemy vessels.

Armstrong said that American vessels, troops, and military assets are vulnerable and officials in Washington have to realize that weapons are being created with the intention to take on the US.

Space Force General David Thompson warned: “We’re not as advanced as the Chinese or the Russians in terms of hypersonic programs.”

Biden and Xi have agreed to hold talks designed at reducing tensions, but Armstrong says it’s difficult to see what the discussions will achieve.

He said: “China has very little to gain in giving up on its military or imperial ambitions right now. 

“It's difficult to see what President Biden seeks to obtain in entering any talks unless China is prepared to say that its own military expenditure is threatening its own economic development at home."

Beijing has developed missile targets shaped like US warships depicting a full-scale outline of at least two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and a US carrier, pictures show.

China’s high-tech Type 003 aircraft carrier is apparently nearing completion and Beijing has conducted tests using underwater explosives.

The country already has two aircraft carriers that are based on Soviet Cold War-era designs.

The new ship is expected to be a 100,000-ton‘ supercarrier’ and could match America's powerful Nimitz class vessels.

It will feature more advanced aircraft launching technology, allowing it to launch the FC-31 new generation of stealth fighters much faster.

'RED ALERT'

Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow at the CSIS's China Project, said the new ship would be the Chinese military's "first foray into a modern aircraft carrier”.

And, officials have tested underwater explosives in what appears to be a strategy to potentially wipe out the US Navy.

Video from the state's mouthpiece The Global Times shows a large gush of water rising into the air during a simulated attack at an unnamed naval port.

Thousands of pieces of data were collected by sensors as computers analyzed how much of the port had been destroyed.

China has already plowed $1trillion into its military this year and has developed missile and radar systems that can rapidly sink US aircraft carriers.  

It has also developed the ability to shoot down American fighter jets and to threaten islands such as Okinawa and Guam.

Deployment of the DF-26 missile dubbed the “Guam killer" has rapidly expanded over the past year, according to a Pentagon intelligence report.

China currently possesses around 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles that have the potential to strike the continental US, but little is known about Beijing’s hypersonic development program.

The DF-17 is equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle and was showcased in 2019 during a National Day military parade.

While the Xingkong 2 nuclear-capable hypersonic prototype was successfully tested at a target range in northwest China in 2018.

Although fears may be escalating about China's future potential, the US' nuclear stockpile considerably outnumber that of Beijing's.

There's no indication that Beijing is set to overtake Washington in the immediate years.