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Hypersonic and directed-energy weapons: Who has them, and who’s winning the race in the Asia-Pacific? Mike Yeo, Nigel Pittaway, Usman Ansari, Vivek Raghuvanshi and Chris Martin
March 15
Photo credit: Imaginima/Getty Images MELBOURNE, Australia, ISLAMABAD, NEW DELHI, and WASHINGTON A number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region are caught up in the global hypersonic and directed-energy weapons race, with these regional powers having either developed or publicly stated intentions to develop such technology. Defense News has contacted regional government and military officials, businesses, and analysts to find out who is keeping pace in the worldwide contest.
China
Chinese military vehicles carry DF-17 ballistic missiles during a parade in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Aaref Watad/AFP via Getty Images
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A Syrian child poses atop a stack of neutralized shells at a metal scrapyard on the outskirts of Maaret Misrin town in the northwestern Idlib province, Syria last week. Aaref Watad/AFP via Getty Images
On March 15, 2011, protesters inspired by successful Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, rallied in Syria to call for an end to their own repressive regime.
But unlike the governments that had earlier more or less collapsed in the face of popular uprisings and armed insurrections, Syria s President Bashar Assad was not about to go quietly. Days after the initial protests, Syrian soldiers fired on demonstrators, killing dozens in what would become the opening shots in a seemingly endless civil war that has reverberated far beyond the Middle Eastern country s borders.