Recent testimony from General John Hyten
(USAF) and Commander of the United States Strategic Command before the United
States Committee on Armed Services gives us a very clear look at where the
Defense Department feels that it is vulnerable. Let's look at some of the
highlights of his testimony followed by a recent news story from Tass, Russia's
largest news agency.
Here are the pertinent highlights of
General Hyten's testimony. He opens by outlining the capabilities of the
United States Strategic Command or USSTRATCOM:
"USSTRATCOM is a global
warfighting command, setting the conditions across the globe as the ultimate
guarantor of national and allied security. Our forces and capabilities underpin
and enable all other Joint Force operations.
USSTRATCOM is globally dispersed from
the depths of the ocean, on land, in the air, across cyber, and into space,
with a matching breadth of mission areas. The men and women of this command are
responsible for Strategic Deterrence, Nuclear Operations, Space Operations,
Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations, Global Strike, Missile Defense,
Analysis and Targeting, and Cyberspace Operations (until USCYBERCOM is
elevated). Nearly 184,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Civilians
support the USSTRATCOM mission, providing an umbrella of security for the
United States and its allies every day. These critical capabilities are an
integral part of our combat operations and enable warfighters across all
domains to preserve the peace and when called upon, dominate in conflict and
win."
He notes that USSTRATCOM's priorities
are as follows:
1.) provide a strategic deterrence.
2.) if deterrence fails, USSTRATCOM is
prepared to deliver a decisive response.
He continues by looking at the
challenges facing USSTRATCOM, particularly those challenges based on the
behaviours of China in the Indo-Pacific region and Russia in Ukraine and the
Middle East He notes that both nations are developing hypersonic-glide
vehicle capabilities which will provide both nations with the leading edge technology
that will allow them to defeat America's ballistic missile defences.
While the United States relies heavily
on the threat of its nuclear triad (land-based nuclear missiles,
strategic aircraft equipped with nuclear bombs and missiles and nuclear
missile-armed submarines) as shown here (with costs for 2016 included):
...to ensure its global dominance, as I
noted above, the development of hypersonic weapons could be a game-changer and
one that concerns USSTRATCOM's leadership as shown in this excerpt from General
Hyten's testimony:
"Adversary anti-access /
area denial strategies are challenging traditional U.S. approaches to power
projection. Advancements in adversary integrated air defense systems and
offensive missiles inhibit our ability to maneuver within the battlespace.
Additionally, our strategic competitors are investing significant resources in
hypersonic weapon research and development with the goal of deploying
hypersonic strike weapons in the next few years. The Department
is pursuing hypersonic capabilities along several lines of effort, but we need
to prioritize and accelerate development if we are to field our own capability
in the near term.
New long-range, survivable, lethal, and
time-sensitive strike capabilities, such as a hypersonic Conventional Prompt
Strike or CPS weapon, will allow the U.S. to achieve its military objectives in
these environments. This new weapon class prevents adversaries from exploiting
time and distance and provides additional response options below the nuclear
threshold. The Navy’s successful CPS flight test last October demonstrated the
technical maturity required to field an effective hypersonic strike solution
within the near future. As our competitors continue to move fast in this area,
we must retake the initiative and commit the necessary resources to develop and
field hypersonic conventional weapons." (my bold)
With that background, let's look at the recent
announcement from TASS:
"The Husky-class fifth-generation
lead nuclear-powered submarine armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles is
expected to be built by 2027, a source in the Russian defense sector told TASS
on Thursday.
The Husky has been included in the
state armament program for 2018-2027. There are plans to start the experimental
design work on the construction of submarines of this class from 2023 and
deliver the lead vessel by the end of 2027," the source said. "Zircon
hypersonic anti-ship missiles will become the main armament of the newest
multipurpose submarine," the source added.
The future submarine’s performance
characteristics have been classified. According to open sources, the Husky will
feature a two-hull design traditional for the Russian Navy and displace 12,000
tonnes. The submarine will be furnished with the most advanced combat
information and control system, a sonar and a system of integration into the
unified information space of the Russian Armed Forces.
The universal missile system with the
Zircon hypersonic missile (it develops a speed of Mach 5-6) has been developed
by the Research and Production Association of Machine-Building and is
undergoing trials now. The Zircon hypersonic missiles are expected to be
mounted on airborne and seaborne carriers."
In addition to the report from TASS, here's a pertinent excerpt from President Vladimir Putin's
annual Address to the Federal Assembly in early March 2018:
"Countries with high research potential
and advanced technology are known to be actively developing so-called
hypersonic weapons. The speed of sound is usually measured in Mach numbers in
honour of Austrian scientist Ernst Mach who is known for his research in this
field. One Mach is equal to 1,062 kilometres per hour at an altitude of 11
kilometres. The speed of sound is Mach 1, speeds between Mach 1 and Mach 5 is
called supersonic, and hypersonic is above Mach 5. Of course, this kind of
weapon provides substantial advantages in an armed conflict. Military experts
believe that it would be extremely powerful, and that its speed makes it
invulnerable to current missile and air defence systems, since interceptor
missiles are, simply put, not fast enough. In this regard, it is quite
understandable why the leading armies of the world seek to possess such an
ideal weapon.
Friends, Russia already has such a
weapon.
The most important stage in the
development of modern weapons systems was the creation of a high-precision
hypersonic aircraft missile system; as you already know for sure, it is the
only one of its kind in the world. Its tests have been successfully completed,
and, moreover, on December 1 of last year, these systems began their trial
service at the airfields of the Southern Military District.
The unique flight characteristics of
the high-speed carrier aircraft allow the missile to be delivered to the point
of discharge within minutes. The missile flying at a hypersonic speed, 10 times
faster than the speed of sound, can also manoeuvre at all phases of its flight
trajectory, which also allows it to overcome all existing and, I think,
prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence systems, delivering nuclear
and conventional warheads in a range of over 2,000 kilometres. We called this
system Kinzhal (Dagger). (bolds mine)
Later in his speech, Putin goes on to
note that Russia is making "...the necessary efforts to neutralize the
threats posed by the deployment of the U.S. global missile defense
system". With Russia's new hypersonic weapons capabilities, they
will, in the near future, be able to launch high precision weapons that can hit
targets on other continents and have the ability to adjust both their altitude
and course during their flight at speeds of up to Mach 20. It is this
maneuverability that has put Russia on the forefront of defeating America's
missile defense systems.
As we can see, the United States has
relied on the heavy fist of its traditional nuclear triad to ensure its role in the old,
unipolar world. It is this focus that has led to a key vulnerability.
With both Russia and China working on hypersonic technology and with
Russia's hypersonic weapons delivery-ready in "the near future",
the Pentagon will surely go begging hat in hand for even more of Main Street's
hard-earned tax dollars. In fact, this is what has happened to spending on
...and the U.S. Air Force has recently signed an indefinite quantity - indefinite quantity deal with Lockheed Martin, America's favourite defense contractor, for up to $928 million to kickstart the development of a prototype for America's Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon program.
We're off and spending away!
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