Washington: Influential American Senator Jack Reed said  that India, Russia, and China have advantages in hypersonic technology, and the United States no longer dominates several sophisticated technologies.

Reed, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated during a nomination hearing on Wednesday, "We're in a situation where we have technological improvements." We used to be the technological powerhouse. That is no longer true. China, India, and Russia have advantages in hypersonic technology."

"For the first time in history, we are about to engage in a trilateral nuclear competition. It is no longer bilateral. No, it's China, Russia, and the United States, not the Soviet Union and the United States "Senator Reed expressed his concerns and asked Dr William LaPlante, the new Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, how he plans to address these difficulties.

Dr LaPlante stated that he hopes to begin soon to hasten his entry into conventional weapons systems.

"This new technology that you mentioned. We've had a lot of projects over the previous few years thanks to this committee, and we've used your authority to quickly contract and do prototypes. That's excellent, in my opinion,” he stated.

"We need to get such capabilities into weapons systems as soon as possible, and sometimes even cross what is known as the valley of death. So, I commit to work with the programme officers to make it their responsibility to perform constant technological updates so that we can re-enter the race you mentioned,” he continued.

He stated that delivering and maintaining timely, cost-effective, and uncompromised capabilities for the armed services and the DOD has never been more vital than now.

"China, our greatest concern; an increasingly authoritarian Russia focused on regional dominance; malicious actors; and other existential threats pose serious risk to the global order and threaten our way of life," Dr. LaPlante warned.

In response to another inquiry, he stated that a failed test is one in which one does not learn.

"To get to your point, you must continue to test. In 2010, 2011, we conducted a joint DARPA-Air Force experiment in which we flew a hypersonic glide vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base to Kwajalein. Both experiments failed, and the United States halted work on hypersonic glide vehicles,” he stated.

"China and Russia simply carried on. So you have to test, learn from the tests, and simply keep going "In response to Senator Angus King, LaPlante stated.