As Russia gains an edge in the development of hypersonic weapons systems, Chinese intelligence is preying on the Russian advancements taking place in the field.
Russian authorities arrested one of their leading weapons scientists for passing hypersonic secrets to China, Reuters reported Wednesday. Two other hypersonic weapons experts have also been charged with spying for Beijing, the news agency added.
The arrests, first reported this week, highlight the continuing efforts by the Chinese spying agencies to steal Russian military secrets. While Russia has become increasingly dependent on China in the wake of the Ukraine war and the resulting Western sanctions, Chinese intelligence has continued operations to strip Russia of its advantage in the field of military technology.
Isolated from the West, Russia is moving towards a military alliance with China. These revelations expose Russia’s vulnerability as it gets sucked into the Chinese sphere of influence.
Reuters reported:
The director of a top Russian science institute, arrested on suspicion of treason along with two other hypersonic missile technology experts, stands accused of betraying secrets to China, two people familiar with the case told Reuters.Alexander Shiplyuk, head of Siberia’s Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM), is suspected of handing over classified material at a scientific conference in China in 2017, the sources said.The 56-year-old maintains his innocence and insists the information in question wasn’t classified and was freely available online, according to the people, whom Reuters has chosen not to identify to safeguard their security.”He is convinced of the fact that the information was not secret, and of his own innocence,” one of the people said.The nature of the allegations against the ITAM director, who was arrested last August, has not been previously reported. The Chinese connection would make Shiplyuk the latest in a string of Russian scientists who have been arrested in recent years for allegedly betraying secrets to Beijing.
In the latest war game, China showed how it intends to use its hypersonic weaponry. Chinese military planners simulated hypersonic missile strikes on a U.S. carrier group, Chinese media reported this week.
The Chinese simulators aimed at the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group and concluded that multiple hypersonic missile hits could sink the carrier and the fleet.
Chinese “researchers said 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles were used to sink the US Navy’s newest carrier and its group in 20 simulated battles,” The South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.
Praising the Chinese military strength, the newspaper claimed that Beijing’s “Hypersonic weapons could be “catastrophic” for the most potent aircraft carrier group in the US fleet, according to war game simulations run by a team of military planners in China.”
“Over 20 intense battles, Chinese forces sank the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier fleet with a volley of 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles, in a simulation run on a mainstream war game software platform used by China’s military,” the Chinese daily added.
The disclosure comes as China takes an increasingly hostile stance towards Taiwan, carrying out military drills encircling the island nation and holding live-fire naval drills. Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to annex Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a renegade province to be brought under the Chinese Communist rule.
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