Is China’s missile threat real?

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it will investigate Senator Imee Marcos’s concern regarding a potential Chinese hypersonic missile attack on 25 areas in the country.

“We are prepared to collaborate with Senator Marcos to gather specifics and implement the necessary measures to safeguard our nation,” AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla told reporters on Wednesday.

The AFP’s response followed Marcos’ apprehension over 25 Philippine locations being targets of Chinese hypersonic missile strikes, citing the expansion of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites and the escalating tensions in the West Philippine Sea.

“I am really afraid as tensions rise in the West Philippine Sea. I have seen China’s plan to use hypersonic missiles,” said Marcos in Filipino in a video posted on her official Facebook page on Monday.

Marcos said the target for missile attacks include the Ilocos region where the United States and the Philippines frequently conduct military exercises.

She also cited the newly delivered Indian-made BrahMos medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missiles that the Philippines acquired from the Indo-Russian defense contractor BrahMos Aerospace, which have been deployed to Batanes and Subic.

“Their 25 targets are already set; it’s clear as day. From our readings, there are BrahMos missiles in Batanes and even in Subic, so those two will be the first, along with the Ilocos, because live-fire Balikatan exercises are held there. It’s really frightening, you know, 25 targets. That’s no joke,” she said.

According to Marcos, the Chinese government may perceive the Philippines’ expansion of the EDCA sites with the US as aligning with their adversary.

“The real problem is that China sees it as us siding with their enemy. We have provided them with 17 military bases that they consider EDCA sites, which is why they are really upset,” she said.

“They are not considering deploying their Army and Navy personnel in the Philippines to launch ground assaults. It was nothing like that. They are planning to launch air attacks,” she added.

Imee said China has already identified 25 sites it plans to strike, many of which are also locations of the EDCA.

U.S. can’t stop hypersonic missiles

Imee bared that she had a discussion with the US regarding China’s alleged plan to launch hypersonic missile strikes in the Philippines.

“The US said they cannot fend off a hypersonic missile, which made me more even nervous. I thought when a country has missiles, there’s something called an iron dome that missiles can’t penetrate,” she said.

“However, they said that with hypersonic missiles, they can easily get through. It could cause massive disruptions,” she added.

Hypersonic missiles

According to the RAND Corporation, an American nonprofit global policy think tank, hypersonic missiles “travel at high speeds of Mach 5 or greater, fly at lower altitudes, and are maneuverable; they are thus considered to be difficult for current air defense systems to intercept.”

The US has yet to develop its hypersonic weapon.

China, on the other hand, has already developed and deployed “ground-, air- and sea-launched hypersonic variants.”

Earlier this year, China’s ally, Russia reportedly utilized a Zircon hypersonic missile in Ukraine for the first time in its more than two years old war.

The Zircon has a range of 1,000 km (625 miles) and travels at nine times the speed of sound, according to Russia.