China has held the first of what could be a series of tests to check on the speed of its new ultra-high speed missile vehicle, officials from the Pentagon said. They claimed the artillery aimed to distribute warheads through U.S. missile defenses.

The Washington Free Beacon, citing unidentified officials, said the experimental weapon was dubbed the WU-14 by Pentagon. China carried out the test of the new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) on Jan 9.

When it was blasted off, authorities claimed the HGV travelled at extremely high speeds during the flight test over China.

"We routinely monitor foreign defense activities and we are aware of this test," Marine Corps Lt Col Jeffrey Pool, the spokesman, told the Washington Free Beacon.

"However, we don't comment on our intelligence or assessments of foreign weapon systems," Lt Col Pool said in a statement. "We encourage greater transparency [by the People's Republic of China] regarding their defense investments and objectives to avoid miscalculation," he added.

Mark Stokes, a former U.S. Air Force officer and specialist on China's strategic weapons systems said that China's test last week seemed to be performed on a new post-boost vehicle designed to launch from a missile.

"A boost glide missile theoretically would be intended to counter existing mid-course missile defenses," Mr Stokes said. He pointed out China is currently working on two hypersonic flight vehicle programs that are considered long-range strategic arms.

Pentagon officials said they found the hypersonic craft was launched atop one of China's intercontinental ballistic missiles. It soared at speeds 10 times the speed of sound from near space as it flew to its target.

"The Chinese are actively seeking global military power to challenge the United States, and it is not yet in any mood to talk, or engage in arms control, about it," Rick Fisher, another China military affairs expert, said.

"The beauty of the HGV is that it can perform hypersonic precision strikes while maintaining a relatively low altitude and flat trajectory, making it far less vulnerable to missile defenses," Mr Fisher said.

Hypersonic speeds are described as falling between the range of Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,840 miles per hour and 7,680 miles per hour.