{"id":130415,"date":"2021-11-11T15:51:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T23:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/forget-chinas-hypersonic-test-the-soviet-union-already-built-a-fobs"},"modified":"2021-11-11T15:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T23:51:02","slug":"forget-chinas-hypersonic-test-the-soviet-union-already-built-a-fobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/forget-chinas-hypersonic-test-the-soviet-union-already-built-a-fobs","title":{"rendered":"Forget China\u2019s Hypersonic Test: The Soviet Union Already Built a FOBS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/forget-chinas-hypersonic-test-the-soviet-union-already-built-a-fobs2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, the <em>Financial Times <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ba0a3cde-719b-4040-93cb-a486e1f843fb\">reported<\/a> that China had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2021\/10\/dont-get-hyper-over-chinas-new-hypersonic-missile-test\/\">tested<\/a> in August a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2021\/10\/chinas-test-of-an-orbital-hypersonic-missile-is-a-big-deal\/\">weapon system<\/a> that used a Long March 2 rocket to boost a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2021\/10\/chinas-nuclear-capable-hypersonic-missile-how-should-america-respond\/\">nuclear-capable weapon<\/a> into low-earth orbit, giving it effectively unlimited range.<\/p>\n<p>From this lofty vantage, the system de-orbited a hypersonic glide vehicle towards a target, which it ended up missing by twenty-four miles. A spokesperson from China\u2019s foreign ministry has since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-10-18\/china-says-hypersonic-object-put-into-orbit-was-space-vehicle\">claimed<\/a> that the test had purely civilian purposes.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s alleged test of an exotic orbital nuclear weapon system rang alarm bells, even if that initial test demonstrated poor accuracy. Such a system seems intended to literally circumnavigate existing U.S. missile defense radars and interceptors by attacking from an unexpected angle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last weekend, the Financial Times reported that China had tested in August a weapon system that used a Long March 2 rocket to boost a nuclear-capable weapon into low-earth orbit, giving it effectively unlimited range. From this lofty vantage, the system de-orbited a hypersonic glide vehicle towards a target, which it ended up missing by [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}