August 9th, 2018: The Race Is On Again

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes the race is on and no matter the outcome Ike's military industrial wins.

The 1950’s and early 1960’s was the great atomic bomb delivery system race between the US and USSR.
The threat of the atomic bomb, fallout shelters, duck and cover, and c’mon baby give it up we could be radioactive tomorrow.
But the collapse of the Soviet Union caused a sigh of relief and it looked like world wide greed had replaced the threat of incineration.
North Korea was used by Putin to stir shit but not a serious threat.
But then, but then, along came China.

The Starry Sky-2, which is an experimental design known as a waverider – for its ability to ride on the shock waves it generates – completed its first test flight on Friday at an undisclosed location in northwest China, the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics said in a statement issued on Monday.
The aircraft was carried into space by a multistage rocket before separating and relying on its own power. During independent flight it conducted extreme turning manoeuvres, maintained velocities above Mach 5.5 (five-and-a-half times the speed of sound) for more than 400 seconds, and achieved a top speed of Mach 6, or 7,344km/h (4,563mph), the statement said.
On completion of the flight, which was deemed a “huge success”, the aircraft landed in a designated target zone, the academy said.
The entire flight was controlled and provided effective test data, while the aircraft itself was recovered “whole”, the statement said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system had reached speeds of Mach 20, while a new hypersonic glide vehicle, the Avangard, which was “absolutely invulnerable to any missile defence system” would come into operation next year, followed by a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile in 2020.

But he’s been known to fib

The US is working on several designs, including the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 and Advanced Hypersonic Weapon. Earlier this year, the US Air Force allocated US$1 billion for the design and development of a hypersonic missile that could be launched from a warplane.

And the beat goes on.

link

[BigV]

Stories like this reduce the appeal of "living forever", or of even getting old.