“What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system. And it is very concerning,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview for “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” on Bloomberg Television. “I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that. It has all of our attention.”…

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in a speech last month referred to the potential for such a Chinese space-based capability, which during the Cold War was called a “Fractional Orbital Bombardment System,” or a system that goes into orbit and then de-orbits to hit a target.

And the CEO of Raytheon Technologies Corp., Gregory Hayes, on Tuesday said that the U.S. is “at least several years behind” China in developing hypersonic technology.

China has disputed the reports of the tests, saying it simply launched a reusable space vehicle.