In keeping with the report, top-secret documents leaked online in recent weeks reveal that China has deployed a medium-range hypersonic missile that may strike targets hundreds of miles away and has a “high probability” of penetrating US defenses.
A chilling assessment of the Beijing People’s Liberation Army’s enhanced strike capabilities is contained in one among a slew of confidential Pentagon documents posted to online message boards since late last yr, federal investigators say.
The documents also revealed U.S. intelligence on Russian military strength, plans for Ukraine’s spring counterattack, and detailed intelligence gathered on U.S. allies.
The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts National Guard soldier, on Thursday for allegedly leaking confidential information to members of a personal Discord chat group. He was formally charged in federal court in Boston on Friday.
Among the many documents was a top-secret report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Directorate on February 28 that detailed a successful test of the Chinese DF-27 medium-range advanced hypersonic glider missile just a few days earlier, the Washington Post reports.
“The DF-27 was designed to be upgraded [China’s] the flexibility to take care of targets in an out-of-bounds emergency The second chain of islands and has a high probability of penetrating “US missile defense,” the report says.
The rocket flew for 12 minutes and traveled 1,300 miles, in keeping with a leaked document.
However the Washington Post identified that a 2021 Department of Defense report estimated the DF-27 to have a variety of as much as 8,000 kilometers, or nearly 5,000 miles, putting it inside striking distance of many of the Pacific, including the U.S. territory of Guam.
Hypersonic gliding force allows the projectile to be easily maneuvered to avoid defense systems.
Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin wrote Thursday that China could use this capability in a possible invasion of Taiwan.
“If U.S. ships could possibly be kept at bay and U.S. forces in Asia could possibly be targeted at will, any allied intervention to defend Taiwan could be tougher and expensive,” Rogin wrote.
Along with developing the DF-27, China is expanding its arsenal because it becomes more militarily aggressive within the South China Sea, launching an improved aircraft carrier, in search of to secure a military outpost within the Pacific, and accelerating the expansion of its nuclear weapons program.
How could a young low-ranking squad gain access to so many critical secrets?
There are several possible explanations:
- The Pentagon frequently issues security clearances to soldiers as young as 18 years old
- Journeymen of cyber transport systems may require higher clearance levels
- His unit can have had the required access to foreign intelligence
- The Pentagon had previously activated National Guard units in support of the war effort in Ukraine
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In March, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) reported that Beijing was constructing about 350 latest nuclear missile silos, tons of of nuclear warheads and bases for mobile missile launchers.
“China is continuous the nuclear weapons modernization program it initiated within the Nineties.
The news site also said that military planners in Washington have realized that China has outpaced the US in hypersonic missile technology, and while the US has its own hypersonic weapons, it “lacks enough resources to defend against people who China is already fielding.”