Important Takeaways:

• China defense report links high-altitude spy balloons to hypersonic missile program
• New Beijing command looks to dominate ‘near-space’ — domain the U.S. says does not exist
• China’s high-altitude balloon program is linked to the military’s hypersonic missile program and a new command for both systems is prepared to conduct “merciless” attacks in a future conflict with the United States, according to a Chinese defense research report.
• The report by a group of researchers at the National University of Defense Technology states that the military set up a new command for both hypersonic missiles and the high-altitude balloons — like the suspected surveillance balloon shot down in February off the South Carolina coast by an Air Force jet fighter after traversing much of the continental U.S.
• The report, “Near Space Operations Command,” made public during a Beijing conference on command and control in October, said the new operations command will direct hypersonic missiles against heavily protected targets, including communications equipment and hubs in the heartland of an adversary.

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