Pentagon chief believes Chinese hypersonics could destroy U.S. carriers in minutes

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth believes the Chinese military’s hypersonic missiles could sink all U.S. aircraft carriers within the first minutes of a potential conflict.

Mr. Hegseth said in a November interview, months before becoming defense secretary, that the People’s Liberation Army’s deployment of ultra high-speed anti-ship missiles highlights Beijing’s rapid drive to build weapons specifically designed to target the American military.

China, he said, is building a military force “specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America.”

“Take hypersonic missiles,” Mr. Hegseth said on “The Shawn Ryan Show.”

“So if our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers and the ability to project power that way strategically around the globe. And, yeah, we have a nuclear triad and all that, but [carriers are] a big part of it. And if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our 10 aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of a conflict, what does that look like?” he said.

Although months old, the comments have received relatively little attention and underscore that the new defense secretary has a clear understanding of China’s advanced missile capabilities and highlight the threat posed by PLA asymmetric warfare capabilities.

U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups currently have limited defenses against hypersonic missiles. Anti-missile interceptors can be deployed on group destroyer escorts.

The defense secretary was briefed last month on the Chinese military threat by intelligence officials at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

The briefing included details on Chinese military plans to take over Taiwan using surprise, lightning-fast attacks with the goal of PLA forces entering the capital of Taipei in 14 days. A similar strategy by Russia in the early days of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine failed, leading to the ongoing, years-long conflict.

It’s unclear whether Chinese hypersonic missile attacks were part of Mr. Hegseth’s recent briefing.

China has deployed two unique hypersonic missile systems that can fly at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, and maneuver in striking targets in minutes while avoiding missile defenses.

The DF-17 medium-range missile can be armed with a hypersonic glide vehicle and is a significant advancement for PLA missiles, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual report on the PLA.

The 1,500-mile-range DF-17 can “be used to strike foreign military bases and fleets in the Western Pacific,” the report said.

The 5,000-mile-range DF-27 also can be armed with a hypersonic warhead, the report said, noting its payload can include land attack, conventional anti-ship, or nuclear warheads, the report said.

Mr. Hegseth’s November comments were made in the context of one of his announced priorities at the Pentagon: Reforming and streamlining the sclerotic U.S. weapons development system.

“The way our bureaucratic system works, where the speed of weapons procurement works, we’re always a decade behind in fighting the last war,” he said.

China, by contrast, is building weapons much faster and in much larger numbers, including both missiles, aircraft, warships and submarines.

Mr. Hegseth said in the interview that China is a major economic threat already and has infiltrated the U.S. electric grid for future attacks. China also is engaged in “elite capture” of officials and private sector leaders and institutions as part of its influence operations.

Beijing also is seeking to corner the international market on microchips, one reason the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to take over Taiwan, a world leader in advanced semiconductors, he said.

“I mean, they have a full spectrum, long-term view of not just regional but global domination,” Mr. Hegseth said, adding that the U.S. remains largely oblivious to the threat.

On preparing for a conflict with China, the defense secretary noted that over the past decade, the U.S. military has a “perfect record” in the results of all its simulated war games against Chinese forces.

“We lose every time,” he said.

The Pentagon is working to develop several types of hypersonic missiles in response to both Chinese and Russian high-speed maneuvering missiles.

For fiscal year 2025, the Pentagon budget request included $6.9 billion for hypersonic missile research.

Programs currently include the Navy’s hypersonic air-launched Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Increment 2, known as HALO; the Army Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, known as Dark Eagle; and the Air Force Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM).

The first Navy hypersonic missile was to be deployed this year but has been delayed until 2027.

NORTHCOM outlines Golden Dome missile defense

The general in charge of U.S. Northern Command, the military command with a lead role in homeland missile defense, recently told Congress that President Trump’s Golden Dome system could be a “three-dome” program.

Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee that his role will be to recommend ways to defend the homeland from ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, cruise missiles, and drone and aircraft threats.

“I’ve provided our command’s recommendation of a three-dome approach with the first dome being a domain awareness dome, the second to handle [intercontinental ballistic missiles], and the third to handle the air threat to include cruise missiles,” Gen. Guillot said on April 9.

“Knowing that depending on what part of the profile hypersonics would be addressed, either in the ICBM dome or in the air dome,” he added.

The comments were the first by a senior military leader on the still-evolving concept Mr. Trump proposed in an executive order in January.

The order noted President Reagan’s efforts to establish a nationwide missile defense system that was opposed by arms control advocates who favored a mutually assured destruction policy.

Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of the Nebraska-based U.S. Strategic Command, said during testimony with Gen. Guillot that his military experts also are engaged in studying options for the Golden Dome defense system, including from the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative.

“We’re looking at some of the things that came from the SDI initiative, some of the talking points, some of the op-eds and analysis and theories that happened then just to kind of capture what that looks like,” he said.

SDI was launched in 1984 but never deployed. It envisioned deploying advanced weapons systems on the ground and in space that could provide layered protection from ballistic missile attacks. It also included lasers and particle beam weapons.

One of its revolutionary concepts was called “Brilliant Pebbles,” a plan to use thousands of small satellites each armed with missiles similar to conventional heat-seeking missiles in low-Earth orbit, located over the Soviet Union.

The pebbles would detect missile launches and use infra-seekers to crash into and destroy enemy missiles as they entered space. The goal was to destroy multiple warhead missiles prior to their release from payloads.

The Golden Dome plan is needed to counter growing missile threats posed by China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

NORTHCOM, Strategic Command and the Space Force are working on a joint requirements report to be presented to the president and Pentagon in the coming months on the outline of the planned Golden Dome defense system.

Current U.S. missile defenses against ICBMs are limited to 44 missile interceptors deployed in Alaska and California that were designed solely to counter a limited North Korean missile attack.

The new system is expected to include capabilities to counter Chinese, Russian, North Korean and Iranian missiles of various types and capabilities.

Pentagon space policymaker John Hill testified at the recent hearing that the department has completed a 60-day study on Golden Dome that is now in the hands of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Chinese fighters captured in Ukraine

Details are emerging about the Chinese nationals fighting alongside Russian military forces in Ukraine.

News reports from Ukraine revealed that one of two Chinese prisoners of war captured by the Ukrainians, Wang Guangjun, said he was recruited to join the conflict by a Russian military promotional video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of the U.S. video-sharing app TikTok.

The captured Chinese fighter said he was enticed by Russian videos showing “flashy and cool” videos of the Russian soldiers and weapons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that more than 150 Chinese nationals currently are engaged in the conflict on behalf of the Russian military.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper published a report on one of the Russian videos that showed a Russian with the statement, “Is this the type of defender you dream of becoming?” and “You’re a man. Be it.”

The recruitment pitch offers Chinese fighters a monthly salary of $2,500.

Chinese affairs analysts note that the fact that the videos circulated widely on social media, which is rigorously censored by the Chinese Communist Party, is an indication of Beijing’s tacit support for the Chinese fighters going to the war.

Mr. Wang told reporters in Kyiv on Monday that he was hit by some type of Russian chemical weapon shortly after he was captured by a Ukrainian soldier.

“I was losing my strength and fainting … Then I felt someone grabbing my collar and pulling me out into the fresh air,” he said through an interpreter.

Mr. Wang and a second Chinese fighter, Zhang Renbo, are the first Chinese nationals captured in the conflict.

Both soldiers said they had no connection to the Chinese government and signed contracts with the Russian military on their own.

China has been supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine through propaganda and weapons technology, according to U.S. officials.

Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.