The United States lags behind China in researching and developing hypersonic weapons technology. Top US military officers and defense industry leaders have already sounded the alarm over China’s rapid hypersonic progress.

In July last year, China conducted a hypersonic weapon test, propelling a missile around the world at the speed of Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound. It sparked widespread panic among senior US military officers, who described the situation as “very close” to a “Sputnik moment”.

Later Raytheon CEO claims that Washington is years behind Beijing in its development of hypersonic weapons. However, it seems that this is not the only area where China is ahead of the United States.

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, has chastised the US government for its delayed 5G rollout, saying the government’s “delay” has left America “well behind” China.

Schmidt and Harvard professor Graham Allison said in a platform for the wall street journal that America is “far behind in almost every 5G dimension while other nations, including China, race ahead.”

The authors argue that 5G should be a “national priority” for the Biden administration. Otherwise, “China will own the future of 5G,” they said. 5G stands for fifth-generation wireless internet, which promises blazingly fast download speeds. It could also serve as a basis for industrial and military applications.

Schmidt and Allison cited statistics from PCMag to suggest that most 5G services in the United States are significantly slower than those in China. They also claimed that despite ongoing US sanctions against Huawei, the Chinese company remains one of the world’s leading 5G providers. They also referred to the Federal Aviation Administration’s “hysteria” over the possibility of 5G operations in the C-band spectrum interfering with aircraft radio altimeters.

They claimed that the Chinese government has invested a total of $50 billion in the country’s 5G networks, but the United States has so far only allocated $1.5 billion. “The pathetic performance of the United States in the 5G race is a sign of America’s larger failure to keep up with China on strategically important technologies. China is also ahead of America in high-tech manufacturing, green energy and many applications of artificial intelligence,” they added.

“On current trajectories, by 2030 it will likely lead the United States in the number of semiconductor chips it produces and in the applications of biotechnology to beat diseases like cancer.”

Schmidt criticized the slow pace of action by the US government on the technology front which he sees as crucial for the future. Last year, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, led by Schmidt, released a report claiming that China could overtake the United States as the world’s “AI superpower”, with ramifications military.

China’s rapid steps

Last month, Chinese researchers claimed to have achieved a world-record wireless transmission speed of 206.25 gigabits per second. This could mean that 6G technology will be up to 100 times faster than 5G.

China has also demonstrated that a hypersonic weapon can communicate and detect targets using 6G technology, eliminating some of the problems with power outages that occur at speeds five times the speed of sound or more. , according to Soth China Morning Post.

Such claims came at a time when the United States had difficulty testing 5G due to interference with key instruments in airplanes, as both use the same frequency. The United States also lacks a functioning hypersonic weapon, having failed three consecutive tests in the past, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.

The United States is also stepping up efforts to roll out 5G services across the country. Telecom companies, including Verizon and T-Mobile, now have large and fast midband 5G networks, and AT&T has promised to launch its own build.

On the other hand, President Biden recently sign legislation granting $65 billion for broadband in the United States, money that could be used for both wireless and broadband networks.