China missile test ‘very close’ to Sputnik moment

Top US General Mark Milley has called China's recent hypersonic missile test "very close" to a Sputnik moment.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an interview with Bloomberg TV called "the test of a hypersonic weapon system" – first reported by the Financial Times last week – a "very significant technological event that occurred".

"I don't know if it's quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it's very close to that," he said in the interview that aired on Wednesday, referring to the Soviet Union's launch of a satellite in 1957 that signified their substantial lead in the so-called "space race" with the US that defined that era.