China, Russia 'aggressively pursuing' hypersonic weapons — and the US doesn't have any defenses

US Air Force General John E Hyten, the Commander of US Strategic Command, made a worrying admission on Tuesday about the state of US defenses against hypersonic weapons: They don't really exist.

While hypersonic weapons are still largely in either the conceptual or testing phase, Russia and China have been making headway on their respective programs, the Business Insider reports.

China tested a functional hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) in November 2017, and Russian tested a hypersonic weapon only a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin boasted that he has an "invincible" hypersonic missile in early March.

"Both Russia and China are aggressively pursuing hypersonic capabilities," Hyten said at a Senate Armed Services hearing on Tuesday. "We've watched them test those capabilities."

When asked by Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, the committee chairman, what kind of defenses the US had against such weapons, the general responded, "Our defense is our deterrent capability."

"We don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us," Hyten said.

The general said that the only "defense" the US had was the threat of nuclear retaliation, adding, "Our response would be our deterrent force, which would be the Triad and the nuclear capabilities that we have to respond to such a threat."

More specifically, Hyten said that low-yield submarine-based nuclear weapons were the primary defense.