PENTAGON CAUGHT BY SURPRISE: CHINA TESTS EARTH-CIRCLING,NUKE -CAPABLE HYPERSONIC MISSILE DISCREETLY.

Along with China, the United States, Russia, and at least five other countries are working on hypersonic technology. China allegedly carried out its first-ever test of a "nuclear capable hypersonic missile" taking by surprise US intelligence, according to a report in a UK-based newspaper. Citing the UK daily, NHK World reported that?China carried out a test on an earth circling, nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August. According to the newspaper, the missile flew through low-orbit space before cruising toward its target. It missed the target but the test is said to show "astounding progress" by?Beijing on hypersonic missile technology that "caught US intelligence by surprise", reported NHK World. The US and Russia have also been working on hypersonic missiles. Such weapons fly at five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre during flight, making them harder to track. Ballistic missiles fly into outer space before returning on steep trajectories at higher speeds. Hypersonic weapons are difficult to defend against because they fly towards targets at lower altitudes but can achieve more than five times the speed of sound - or about 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph). Experts say full development of such technology by China would impact the missile defense systems of the US and Japan, reported NHK World.

1. Financial Times says US intelligence officials reportedly caught by surprise by Beijing’s progress on weapons; Pentagon says, ‘We hold China as our number one pacing challenge ‘China has tested a new space capability with a hypersonic missile, the Financial Times reported on recently. The report, citing multiple sources familiar with the test, said Beijing in August launched a nuclear-capable missile that circled the Earth at low orbit before descending toward its target, which three sources said it missed by over 20 miles (32 kilometers).FT sources said the hypersonic glide vehicle was carried by a Long March rocket, launches of which it usually announces, though the August test was kept under wraps. The report added that China’s progress on hypersonic weapons “caught US intelligence by surprise.”

2.Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he would not comment on the specifics of the report but added: “We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue, capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond. That is one reason why we hold China as our number one pacing challenge. “Hypersonic missiles, like traditional ballistic missiles which can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly at more than five times the speed of sound. But ballistic missiles fly high into space in an arc to reach their target, while a hypersonic flies on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, potentially reaching a target more quickly. Crucially, a hypersonic missile is maneuverable (like the much slower, often subsonic cruise missile), making it harder to track and defend against. While countries like the United States have developed systems designed to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, the ability to track and take down a hypersonic missile remains a question.

3.China has been aggressively developing the technology, seeing it as crucial to defend against US gains in hypersonic and other technologies, according to a recent report by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS).The reported test comes as US-China tensions have mounted and Beijing has stepped up military activity near Taiwan, the self-ruling US-aligned democracy that Beijing considers a province awaiting reunification. “The test showed that China had made astounding progress on hypersonic weapons and was far more advanced than US officials realized," the report said, citing people briefed on the intelligence. China's ministry of defense did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters on Sunday. The United States and Russia are also developing hypersonic missiles, and last month?North Korea?said it had test-fired a newly-developed hypersonic missile. At a 2019 parade, China showcased advancing weaponry including its hypersonic missile, known as the DF-17.

4 .IMPACT. Post Covid World and US withdrawal from Afghanistan has put US in a big Dilemma of how to keep its presence in South Asia and let India pay the proxy of US to offset China in South China sea& South Pacific Zone. What is more surprising is the appearance of new eastern block& Pakistan refusal to budge from its principal stance?

• Afghanistan will be getting out of the focuses if US try to start a medium level cold war with China or between east and west.
• What would happen in case tension escalate in South Asia anywhere in the neighborhood of Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Iran& Afghanistan? Consequently the fragile sate would send their Jihadi ISIS/Alqaida elements to offset the interest of west, expecting Chinese and Russian resistance to US intrusion in South Asian geopolitics.
• China conflict, in which India, a rising power, is confronted by China, the established power. But such comparisons are unsatisfactory because of the power asymmetry is against India. The overall military, economic, and political balance of power tilts towards China.
• Chinese strategists discount India as a serious security or economic threat. For China, India assumes substantial low priority military threat compared to the United States. More often India is described as a “barking dog” that must be ignored and its policy actions are described as having little political impact.
• India has resisted the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), refused to the join the Beijing-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and cancelled many of the Chinese infrastructure projects in India after the fighting along the border.
• Hindsight, Insight, Foresight: Thinking about Security in the Indo-Pacific Strategic assessments suggests that military balance conventional &nuclear overwhelmingly leans towards China. Indian military leaders have publicly acknowledged that India does not have “the capability nor the intention to match China, force for force.” However, others have cautioned that India will not reflexively acquiesce when faced with a military threat from China.
• India has not relented against aggressive Chinese posture along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in 2013, 2017, and more recently in the bloody hand-to-hand combat both India and China suffered casualties in June 2020.
• The Indian armed forced have repelled Chinese incursions across the border and managed to stave off the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drives periodically. But for how long can India parry the repeated incursions by the PLA along the LAC and does India have the wherewithal to sustain a long military campaign against China?
• In the next 2 to 5 years, a grand bargain for a border settlement seems highly improbable, if not impossible, which would make status quo the default option particularly for India. India is interested in ensuring that an escalatory war does not breakout with China while it is battling a global pandemic and drawing up plans to revive its economy
• There are also few other possibilities such as India could experience significant domestic political upheaval causing some states to secede or they attempt to secede, testing the territorial union of India. A conventional war would significantly weaken India and Pakistan, and worse yet a nuclear war would dramatically destroy both countries and its population, effectively rendering the territorial designs dead.?