China’s WU-14

Communist China recently tested a new hypersonic missile vehicle. It’s evidently designed to use extremely high speed flight and maneuverability to defeat U.S. defenses, while delivering nuclear or perhaps advanced conventional weapons to targets in this country and elsewhere.

The implications of such a development are ominous. Like so much else of China’s military activities, the hypersonic system the Pentagon calls the WU-14 has been shrouded in secrecy, then is suddenly unveiled at an advanced stage of development.

The United States has been experimenting with such technology, as well, but its versions reportedly may not be operationally deployable for ten more years. That effort may have to be accelerated.

But, one thing’s certain: We must consider Communist China a potentially very dangerous adversary, not a reliable trading partner.