Alex Phillips: We need to talk about the 21st century arms race

This comes with a serious health warning. It may render you a nervous wreck, so if you are of delicate disposition, take a deep breath. Because in top security facilities around the world, weapons are being created to wipe out humanity, and at a rate faster than the world has ever witnessed. If you thought the arms race and Star Wars weapons systems were a relic from the Cold War era, where most of the world quaked on a cliff edge of constant existential threat, think again. Russia has been blowing up satellites in space, China has created a nuclear missile that can rip around the world at hypersonic speed and reports of sonic waves being deployed to fry people’s brains are being both debunked and manically investigated at the same time. We are right back in the throes of a global arms race, and the weapons of war being developed are more terrifying than ever before.

If there’s one thing the pandemic should have taught us is that accidents can have catastrophic consequences. If the unproven theories are true and Covid was a laboratory made virus, we should be grateful that the pathogen was as mild as it is, despite reaching every corner of the planet and claiming millions of lives. Imagine a scenario where what was unleashed was weapons-grade biological warfare designed to obliterate troops of fighting fitness. Lockdowns would be an apocalyptic last resort.

Having exited the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to halt the arms race, the US has been developing defense systems against intercontinental ballistic missiles for decades, a concerted effort that the West’s adversaries perceive as aggression, and are now scrambling to outstrip, developing a chilling arsenal to hedge against the possibility that America could strike first but be impervious to a retaliatory attack. Today 14,000 nuclear weapons are stored while the world now counts, officially, nine nuclear armed states. Tensions are significantly rising. A major arms race is on, with concern within the United Nations over a lack of any serious effort to stop it.

In February, Biden and Putin agreed to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, yet both are locked in a scramble to develop warheads where miscalculation in a crisis would effectively end the world. Without intervention, a perilous build-up of weapons of mass destruction has once again gripped the planet with America, China and Russia all rabidly participating. The UK and France are also modernising their arsenals while Pakistan, India, Iran and North Korea to name but a few are also tooling up with hideous ordants.

America alone reputedly spends more than $700 billion on its military budget and is developing state-of-the-art hardware while also giving nuclear submarine technology to Australia for a serious presence in the South China Sea. This who blinks first grotesque mutually assured destruction is only just underway with diminishing checks and balances.

A current must have munition is hypersonic missiles, with China having tested a new warhead capable of carrying a nuclear bomb around the Earth while Russia has developed two such formidable arms with one that can fly at 20 times the speed of sound. The planet would be rubble within the time it takes to say the word STOP.

Meanwhile mysterious reports into outbreaks of strange symptoms, allegedly brought on by a piercing, high pitched sound, have led experts to question whether Havana Syndrome, claimed by more than 200 US diplomatic, military and intelligence personnel worldwide, is a deadly threat or the stuff of science fiction. The fear is so great that the CIA Director has appointed the undercover spy who spearheaded the hunt for Bin Laden to investigate.

Then, just last week, Russia blew up one of its own satellites, showering the International Space Station with debris, demonstrating its ability to destroy vital communications and GPS systems providing crucial choreography to territorial warfare on Earth.

I pray you sleep well tonight, viewers, because today, we really need to talk about the 21st century arms race.