GSN Digital Edition April 2016

Hazmat Science and Public Policy with George Lane
Race for a New Class of Weapons
Threatens to Revive Cold War
By George Lane
The U.S., Russia, and China are currently
aggressively pursuing a new
generation of smaller, less destructive
weapons, using “hypersonic glide” vehicles
(HGV). The buildups threaten
to revive a Cold War-era arms race
and unsettle the balance of destructive
force among nations that has kept
the peace for more than a half-century.
It is an old dynamic playing out
in an economically declining Russia,
a rising China, and an
uncertain U.S. resuming
their brinksmanship.
U.S .officials blame
Russian president Putin.
Some blame the Chinese,
who are looking for
a technological edge to
keep the U.S. at bay. And some blame
the U.S. for speeding ahead with
“modernization” that risks throwing
nuclear fuel on the fire.
“Fast, precise, and deadly”
HGVs are being developed by the
U.S., China, and Russia, ultrahighspeed
warheads capable of carrying
either nuclear or non-nuclear payloads.
As in the graphic, the HGV vehicle
is launched in several stages: (1)
Moscow and Beijing are testing space
weapons that could knock out U.S.
military satellites at the beginning of
a nuclear war.
Launch; (2) Separation; (3) Descent;
(4) Pull up; (5) Glide; and (6) Impact.
The HGV is launched aboard an
ICBM, separates while still in space,
and then zooms back into the atmosphere
at Mach 10, or 7,680 miles
per hour. That’s fast enough to enter
American airspace before we even
react. By comparison, today’s cruise
missiles fly between 500 to 600 mph.
The HGV is less susceptible to anti-ballistic
missile countermeasures
than conventional reentry vehicles
that descend on a predictable ballistic
trajectory. HGVs could pull-up
after reentering the atmosphere and
approach its target in a relatively flat
glide, lessening the time it can be detected,
fired at, or reengaged if the
initial attack failed. Gliding makes it
more maneuverable and also extends
its range so that relatively vulnerable
mid-course phase of its flight can take
10
place father from the target.
The HGV stays within the stratosphere
after reentry and pull-up, and
glides through the air. Although that
creates more drag, warheads fly further
than they would on a higher trajectory
through space, and are too low
to be intercepted by exo-atmospheric
kill vehicles.
The Chinese military is flight-testing
a HGV called “WU-14”. It flies
into space on a traditional
long-range missile, but
then maneuvers through
the atmosphere at Mach 10,
rendering current missile
defenses useless. WU-14
would provide Beijing for
the first time with a precision
strike capability to hit any target
in the world within an hour.
China might use their HGV as an
anti-ship ballistic missile with a nonnuclear
warhead against U.S. aircraft
carriers and alter the balance of
power in the Pacific, where China is
literally building new islands in the
South China Sea, also claimed by at
least three other countries, including
the Philippines, an American ally. The
Chinese have concluded that it is un-