Members of the AUKUS security pact - namely the US, UK and Australia - have issued a joint statement saying that the three countries are making a joint effort to develop hypersonic weapons, as well as other means of electronic warfare. The cooperation will expand the security pact believed to be designed to deter and contain China, The Financial Times reported ahead of the announcement.
"We [...] committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen cooperation on defence innovation", the statement said.
China's UN envoy responded to the announcement warning the AUKUS members against "things which might lead other parts of the world into crisis" akin to what is presently unfolding in Ukraine.
The news comes in the wake of the Pentagon confirming an earlier report from CNN that the US "recently" conducted its first successful test of a hypersonic missile developed by Lockheed Martin, called the "Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC)". This was the Pentagon's first successful step along the path to develop its own hypersonic weaponry after a series of reported failures.
The US started developing such weapons back in the 20th century, but put the programme on ice after it failed to produce results because of technological constraints. The programme was reportedly re-started and reinvigorated after Russia and China presented working hypersonic missiles several years ago.
According to partially confirmed media reports, China carried out a test of one hypersonic missile, which managed to fly around the globe and took the Pentagon by surprise. The missile was reportedly capable of hitting the US from the South Pole, although most of America's anti-missile radar capabilities are focused on the North. The Pentagon admitted that China managed to venture far ahead on the hypersonic weapons technology.
Hypersonic weapons travel at speeds of more than Mach 5 and can rapidly manoeuvre mid-flight, making its flight path extremely difficult to predict compared with regular ballistic missiles. This, in turn, makes hypersonic weapons hard to guard against with modern air defence systems. Russia says its latest S-series air defence system was built to take account of the country's expertise in hypersonic weaponry and thus can intercept such missiles. However, Moscow has not yet carried out live tests of such intercepts.