Many hailed the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States as an improvement over President Donald Trump, especially those who believe in some form of foreign policy where internationalism plays a role, or at least some form of internationalism.
Donald Trump's right-wing populism was not good for the idea of a world governed by law, or international law. He withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Open Skies Treaty, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. However, Biden's administration is proving to be the continuation of Trump's in some ways. Like Trump, Biden is in a rush to develop hypersonic weapons.
Hypersonic weapons are missiles that travel faster than the speed of sound. Their existence presents challenges to arms control, as anti-missile systems that work against conventional weapons won't work against hypersonic versions due to their speed. This would give anyone who possesses them advantages in a first attack situation, making adversaries inferior. They are also hard to detect by conventional means and detection is a key component of arms control.
Biden is accelerating what Trump started. In the 2022 budget, the Pentagon requested $3.8 billion for projects related to research and development of hypersonic weapons, according to writer Shannon Bugos' story "Biden to Speed Development of Hypersonic Weapons." Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee this summer: "this budget supports our efforts to accelerate investments in cutting-edge capabilities that will define the future fight, such as hypersonics and long-range fires." Principal Director of Hypersonic Weapons in the Office of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael White said in June: "we've really been very fortunate in having a new administration continue the momentum and step up and champion what we're trying to do with delivering this war-fighting capability." He also said: "our adversaries," Russia and China, "have fielded capability today that we don't have."
The Air Force requested $238 million for continued R & D on the Advanced Rapid Response Weapons System, an air launched hypersonic glide vehicle, a $40 million dollar increase over the Trump administration's projected request in last year's budget documents, said Bugos. The Air Force also asked for $200 million for the new Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile program to "design, develop, and test a prototype that will demonstrate the viability of a multi-mission concept to be fielded as a long-range prompt strike capability." The Navy asked for $1.4 billion for the Conventional Prompt Strike program, the addition of the CPS to the Zumwalt-class destroyers. The Army asked for $412 million for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon's system. This was a decrease of $114 billion from the Trump administration's projections, which the Biden administration said was due to relocating funding to develop a conventional ground-launched missile capabilities.
The Army also requested $286 million to develop a conventional, ground launched, midrange missile capability. The service announced in November its selection of the Navy's Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk cruise missile to serve as the basis for the new capability. Both the SM-6 and the Tomahawk missiles would have been prohibited under the INF Treaty.
Naturally, we must submit hypersonic weapons to various forms of arms control. However, this will not happen with the splits between the world's major powers, the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and the European Union. We won't solve the problems of hypersonics until we simmer the tensions alive in the world.
Jason Sibert is the Executive Director of the Peace Economy Project
