ASSESSMENTS

What the Next Arms Race Will Look Like

Mar 21, 2016 | 09:30 GMT

A display of a flight of the warhead of the Avangard hypersonic boost-glide weapon.
A display of a flight of the warhead of the Avangard hypersonic boost-glide weapon. Russia's military-industrial complex has developed the Avangard strategic intercontinental ballistic missile system equipped with a gliding hypersonic maneuvering warhead.

(Photo by TASS\TASS via Getty Images)

A new arms race is unfolding between the world's great powers. Hypersonic missiles, which are both accurate and extremely fast, stand to change the face of modern warfare by rendering the current generation of missile defense systems ineffective. As competition heats up among Russia, China and the United States to be the first to deploy hypersonic missiles, each will become more vulnerable to attack by the others. If tensions rise, so will the risk of pre-emptive strikes among the longtime rivals....

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