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Leaked Pentagon documents reveal China successfully tested a new hypersonic nuclear-capable missile in February - with a 'high probability of penetrating' US defenses
- Among the classified documents leaked by Jack Teixeira was a February 28 top-secret report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence directorate
- The document said that on February 25, China had successfully tested a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile called the DF-27
- The DF-27 'possesses a high probability of penetrating US' missile defenses, the secret report said
PUBLISHED: 07:07 BST, 14 April 2023 | UPDATED: 07:22 BST, 14 April 2023
Pentagon files allegedly leaked by Jack Teixeira include a deeply troubling report about China's hypersonic missile program, and the revelation that a new missile believed to be capable of evading U.S. defenses has been successfully tested.
Teixeira, 21, was arrested on Thursday at his home in Massachusetts. He is believed to have shared hundreds of classified documents with friends on a Discord chat room between the fall and mid March.
Among them was a February 28 top-secret report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence directorate, The Washington Post reported.
They reported that three days previously, on February 25, China had successfully tested a new missile, named DF-27 - a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile, in the Dongfeng series. All Dongfeng-series missiles are capable of delivering nuclear warheads.
The missile 'possesses a high probability of penetrating US' ballistic missile defenses, the report said.
The February 28 memo also revealed that last year the Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army, deployed versions of the new missile that can attack land targets and ships.
The new missile has a hypersonic glide vehicle, designed to fly more than five times the speed of sound.
They can maneuver in flight, making them almost impossible to shoot down.
The DF-27 flew for 12 minutes and traveled 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles), the leaked document revealed.
Its range is significantly more than that: a 2021 Defense Department report cited by The Washington Post said the DF-27 has a range of 5,000 to 8,000 kilometers, meaning that it can strike any target in East or Southeast Asia and large parts of the Pacific, including Guam.
Alaska is around 7,200km away: mainland U.S. is under 11,000km away, according to the latest annual Pentagon analysis, 'Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China'. The report was published in November and cited by Newsweek.
'The DF-27 is designed to enhance [China's] ability to hold targets at risk beyond the Second Island Chain and possesses a high probability of penetrating U.S.' ballistic missile defense, the report stated.
The First, Second and Third Island Chains are geopolitical terms, first identified by U.S. military planners in the 1940s, for a series of concentric semicircles stretching out from China.
The Second Island Chain references the area stretching from central Japan through the Marianas and Micronesia.
The third is centered on Hawaii. The first is closer to China, and runs from the far south of Japan through the South China Sea.
China has long been known to be making rapid strides in its hypersonic missiles program.
The latest development, however, comes at a tense time, with rising fears about the safety of Taiwan.
The leaked documents also showed that China has for the first time recently used its new helicopter-carrying assault ship, Yushen LHA-31, in an extended deployment - another worrying update for Taiwan.
Last year it emerged that the Chinese military is developing a supersonic anti-ship missile that will be able to travel further and faster than any traditional torpedo.
The 16ft 5in missile will be able to go as fast as 2.5 times the speed of sound at about 32,800 feet for 124 miles before diving and skimming across the waves for up to 12.4 miles.
When it arrives within about 6.2 miles of its target, the missile will go into torpedo mode, traveling underwater at up to 100 meters per second using super-cavitation, which makes a giant air bubble around it, will significantly reduces drag.
China's expansion into hypersonic missile technology and other advanced fields has raised concerns as Beijing becomes increasingly assertive over its claims to seas and islands in the South China and East China Seas, and to large chunks of territory along its disputed high-mountain border with India.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere, or about 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph).
The United States and Russia are also developing hypersonic missiles, and North Korea said in August that it had test-fired a newly-developed hypersonic missile.
In October, the US Army and Navy successfully launched a rocket while testing a new class of hypersonic weapons at a seaside NASA facility.
NASA's Wallop Flight Facility in Virginia hosted the test by Sandia National Laboratories which evaluated hypersonic weapon communications and navigation equipment as well as advanced materials that can withstand the heat in a 'realistic hypersonic environment,' according to a Navy statement.
The testing comes amid growing concerns Russia and China have had more success developing their own hypersonic weapons than the US.
The United States and its global rivals have quickened their pace to build hypersonic weapons - the next generation of arms that rob adversaries of reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms.
The Pentagon's 2023 budget request already includes $4.7 billion (£4 billion) for research and development of hypersonic weapons.
It includes planning that would have a hypersonic missile battery fielded by next year, a sea-based missile by 2025 and an air-based cruise missile by 2027.
Russia has used hypersonic missiles 'multiple' times in Ukraine, according to the top U.S. commander in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the country's arms manufacturers to develop even more advanced hypersonic missiles to maintain the country's edge in military technologies.
The Russian military has said that its Avangard system is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound and making sharp maneuvers on its way to a target to dodge the enemy's missile shield.
It has been fitted to the existing Soviet-built intercontinental ballistic missiles instead of older type warheads, and the first unit armed with the Avangard entered duty in December 2019.
Leaked Pentagon files show China tested new hypersonic ICBM
China on February 25 successfully tested the DF-27 - a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile - according to a Pentagon document leaked by Jack Teixeira.
