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range of around 2 000-3 000 km, the missile of Brahmos Aerospace, said that it would take an additional seven
is within striking distance of targets in South to ten years for Brahmos to reach hypersonic speeds.
Korea, Japan and Russia. The country has also Other nations have not been sitting idle. France has an active
showed off a rocket-boosted hypersonic glide hypersonics development program, and is working with Russia to
vehicle (HGV), the Dongfeng-17. develop weapons, said a 2017 report by the Rand Corp., a nonparti-
Although it is still some years away from san research organization. Australia, Japan and the European Union [ COVER STORY ]
being operational, China is also actively test- all have ongoing civilian or military hypersonics research underway.
ing another hypersonic missile, this one said Japan’s efforts are targeted at developing a weapon that will be
to be even more lethal that DF-17. According to ready for testing by 2025.
media reports, the Xingkong-2 or Starry Sky-2
cruise missile is capable of flying at speeds Entering Dangerous Territory
of up to 4,563 mph and will be able to switch While the rush to develop hypersonic weapons and countermea-
direction in mid-flight. Designed by the China sures has spawned a thriving market, arms control experts warn
Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics under that the uncontrolled proliferation of such weapons could make
China Aerospace Science and Technology the world a very combustible place and even trigger an inadvertent
Corporation, Starry Sky-2, was successfully war. The introduction of chemical and biological weapons as well as
flight-tested in August 2018. Capable of pene- ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads were all followed
trating any missile defence system, the Starry by international debate and the introduction of controls, but there
Sky 2 is a waverider, a hypersonic flight vehicle currently is no accord limiting the development or deployment of
that uses shockwaves generated by its own hypersonic technology, even though at least four countries are
flight in the air to glide at a high speed. actively pursuing it.
“This is not the first case of a new technology proceeding
India Makes Progress through research, development and deployment far faster than
Keen to build up its military might so that it is the policy apparatus can keep up,” says Thomas M. Countryman,
not dwarfed by China, India tested a weapon- former assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.
izable Hypersonic Technology Development Countryman is in favor of limitations being imposed on the number
Vehicle (HSTDV) in 2019. The country is also of hypersonic missiles that a country can build or on the type of
developing a hypersonic missile, Brahmos II, the warheads that they can carry.
hypersonic version of its anti-ship/land-attack
Brahmos supersonic cruise missile. A joint ven- The United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs has expressed
ture between Russia and India, Brahmos II will its concern as well. In a report, it warned that the deployment of
have a speed of more than Mach 5 and will be hypersonic weapons would make other militaries worried about
powered by a supersonic combustion ramjet, or the possible destruction of their retaliatory-strike capability, thus
“scramjet,” engine. Brahmos II was projected to making them consider the use of nuclear weapons. The ramifica-
be operational by 2013, but progress has been tions of the proliferation of hypersonic weapons “remain largely
slow. In 2018, Sudhir Mishra, the chief executive unexamined and almost wholly undiscussed.”

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