The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley not only confirmed that the U.S. intelligence community, and therefore the Department of Defense and the U.S. administration believe that China test-launched a new hypersonic weapons system sometime in late July, he said it was close to a Sputnik moment.

To understand better what Gen.Milley is saying, I spoke with one of the most knowledgeable hypersonics and hypersonic weapons systems experts and aeronautics engineers, the former DoD’s former Director of Defense, Research and Engineering, Mark Lewis. He’s now the Executive Director, Emerging Technologies Institute at the National Defense Industrial Association.

Later Sarah Mineiro from the Center for a New American Security and Kaitlyn Johnson from the Center for Strategic and International Studies discuss their take on Milley’s statements, and what the U.S. Space Force is doing to coordinate with the defense and space industries and to also work with Congress on getting the funding to meet current and future threats and challenges.