The Arms Control & Disarmament Centre (ACDC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) organised an in-house discussion meeting on “Hypersonic Missile Race: Regional and Global Implications” on January 26, 2021. The ISSI research faculty and members of the ACDC advisory board attended the event. Malik Qasim Mustafa, Director ACDC, moderated the discussion.
In his introductory remarks, Malik Qasim Mustafa, Director ACDC, said that hypersonic missile technology is one of the top emerging military technologies which is generally defined as a missile with a speed of Mach 5 or greater (1 Mach is 1225.04 kph and Mach 5 is 6125.22 kph). Major powers like the US, Russia and China are already in a new arms race to develop hypersonic missile technology. In September 2020 by conducting a Mach 6 hypersonic technology test, India became the fourth country to join this elite club of hypersonic technology. A new arms race to develop hypersonic missile technology has severe regional and global implications. This technology will disturb the balance of power among major nuclear-armed states and make an anti-ballistic missile system useless. It will also question nuclear security, nuclear and conventional readiness.
