BUFFALO (WBEN) - Senator Chuck Schumer paid a visit to Buffalo Thursday to call for increased investment in CUBRC, an independent not-for-profit research facility that focuses on the development of hypersonic military technology.
Senator Chuck Schumer is in Buffalo at CUBRC as they're making a push to establish the facility as the national leader in hypersonic weapon development. Schumer says this is the only facility in the country that can conduct weapons tests at this level. pic.twitter.com/kNXRoDnmBl
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Schumer is calling on the DOD to make CUBRC the national epicenter for the pursuit of hypersonic weapons because he says the country's security depends on it.
"China and Russia are developing these right now, and I hate to say this, but when it comes to hypersonics, China is ahead of us," said Schumer. "That means they can put at risk certain military facilities, that we have throughout the world, quicker than we can defend them and quicker than we could go aftter theirs. We do not want to let China, which as you know, in many ways has not been the friendliest country to the U.S., gain that kind of advantage over us or it could have bad effects in so many different ways."
He added that CUBRC is the only place in the nation that can test hypersonic technology to the level it can, and that increased federal investment in the facility will be a nice boost for Western New York's economy.
"Once hypersonics really takes off, so to speak, the number of jobs could go up significantly if we become a center of hypersonic research, hypersonic materials, and hypersonic building," he said.
