China is developing supersonic torpedo-missile that can fly at 33,000ft AND underwater
The Chinese military is developing a supersonic anti-ship missile that will be able to travel further and faster than any traditional torpedo.
The 16.4 feet missile will be able to go as fast as 2.5 times the speed of sound at about 32,800 feet for 124 miles before diving and skimming across the waves for up to 12.4 miles.
When it arrives within about 6.2 miles of its target, the missile will go into torpedo mode, travelling underwater at up to 100 metres per second using super-cavitation.
DF-17 Dongfeng medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with a DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle, involved in a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Republic
U.S. ally Japan, one of China’s chief regional rivals, said it would boost its defenses against what it interpreted as a new offensive Chinese weapon
The formation of a giant air bubble around it which will significantly reduces drag.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere, or about 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph). This is slower than an intercontinental ballistic missile, but the shape of a hypersonic glide vehicle allows it to manoeuvre toward a target or away from defences.
Lead scientist Li Pengfei and his team said no existing ship defence system was designed to handle such a fast ‘cross-media’ attack. ‘This can greatly improve the missile’s penetration capability,’ they said.
Developers said one of the biggest challenges is the power system, because of the need to produce considerable thrust while breathing in either air or water. But they said the issue could be solved by using boron – a light element that reacts violently when exposed to both, releasing a huge amount of heat, according to South China Morning Post.
China’s space program is run by its military and is closely tied to its agenda of building hypersonic missiles and other technologies that could alter the balance of power with the United States.
Alongside its space program, China’s expansion into hypersonic missile technology and other advanced fields has raised concerns as Beijing becomes increasingly assertive over its claims to seas and islands in the South China and East China Seas and to large chunks of territory along its disputed high-mountain border with India.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere
U.S. ally Japan, one of China’s chief regional rivals, said it would boost its defenses against what it interpreted as a new offensive Chinese weapon.
The United States and Russia are also developing hypersonic missiles, and last month North Korea said it had test-fired a newly-developed hypersonic missile.
The Pentagon’s 2023 budget request already includes $4.7 billion for research and development of hypersonic weapons. It includes planning that would have a hypersonic missile battery fielded by next year, a sea-based missile by 2025 and an air-based cruise missile by 2027.
Russia has used hypersonic missiles ‘multiple’ times in Ukraine, according to the top U.S. commander in Europe.
Last fall, as U.S. intelligence officials had become increasingly concerned about the massing of Russian forces on the Ukraine border, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the country’s arms manufacturers to develop even more advanced hypersonic missiles to maintain the country’s edge in military technologies.
The Russian military has said that its Avangard system is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound and making sharp maneuvers on its way to a target to dodge the enemy’s missile shield.
It has been fitted to the existing Soviet-built intercontinental ballistic missiles instead of older type warheads, and the first unit armed with the Avangard entered duty in December 2019.
A high time for hypersonic missiles – but who has what?
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere. The benchmark speed for a hypersonic missile is 3,850 mph – though the most effective ones travel much faster.
Hypersonic missiles are still slower than intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), but are generally maneuverable, meaning they are more adept at evading existing missile defence systems.
Darpa, the US army’s scientific wing, recently announced successful tests of what it called a HAWC missile (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept)
UNITED STATES
The US military has a number of hypersonic weapons programmes across the Navy, Army and Air Force, but most are still in a developmental phase and remain closely guarded secrets.
The only US hypersonic weapon known to have been successfully tested is the Air Force’s GM-183 ARRW, which is designed to be launched from a large bomber aircraft.
It then accelerates to hypersonic speeds using a supersonic combustion ramjet to strike targets within 1,000 miles.
The Navy’s submarine launched Long Range Hypersonic Weapon is expected to be operational by 2023 and will have a range of 1,725 miles.
Darpa, the US army’s scientific wing, recently announced successful tests of what it called a HAWC missile (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept) but kept details such as range, speed and payload secret.
The missile uses oxygen in the atmosphere as part of its fuel – marking the first successful test of that class of weapon since 2013.
The engine works by compressing incoming air with hydrocarbon fuel to create a fast airflow mixture, one capable of reaching over 1,700 metres per second, or five times the speed of sound.
Test-launch of an ‘unstoppable’ Zircon nuclear-capable Mach 9 hypersonic missile from Russian’s Admiral Gorshkov frigate
RUSSIA
Russia currently boasts the world’s most advanced hypersonic missile technology.
Putin in 2018 announced Moscow had developed a range of nuclear capable ‘Avangard’ hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) which can travel at Mach 20 – speeds in excess of 15,000mph – with an effective range of thousands of miles.
Russia’s conventional hypersonic missile, the Zircon, has an effective range of around 620 miles, but the missile flies below the atmosphere and uses fuel to power itself to hypersonic speeds, unlike the Avangard which uses the Earth’s orbit to reach exceptional speeds before gliding through the atmosphere and striking its target.
Russia announced it has successfully test-fired the Zircon from a nuclear submarine for the first time earlier this year, when the 6,670mph weapon hit a target in the Barents Sea according to the Moscow defense ministry.
Russia’s armed forces had completed flight tests of the new-age missile from a frigate – the Admiral Gorshkov – and a coastal mount, and the missile is now expected to be deployed to Russia’s navy in the coming months.
Putin previously said the Zircon missile’s capabilities are ‘truly unparalleled anywhere in the world’.
Moscow is also known for its formidable ‘Satan II’ Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which can carry several nuclear warheads or can be used to deploy the Avangard HGVs over an effective range of 11,000 miles.
China launches its nuclear-capable, hypersonic nuclear missile DF-26 which ‘could reach US territory and sink aircraft carriers’ in a military drill
CHINA
China last year reportedly tested a ‘Fractional Orbital Bombardment System’, or FOBS, developed to evade powerful US radar arrays and missile defence systems.
Missile defence systems work by detecting launches of ICBMs, tracking them into space, then firing at the warheads as they come down in the hope of blowing them up before they hit their targets.
This is possible because ICBMs and their warheads follow a predictable trajectory that rises high into space – making them relatively easy to spot and allowing defence crews to calculate where they are aimed so they can be shot out of the sky.
FOBS aim to negate these defenses by firing their warheads along a much-flatter trajectory – assisted by Earth’s gravity.
This means they pass under the scope of many radar detection arrays and are harder to track. It also makes the warheads much harder to shoot down because their trajectory is harder to calculate.
The use of orbit makes a warhead’s range potentially unlimited, meaning it can be fired at its target from any direction. This helps to avoid radar systems which generally point at a fixed spot in the sky – in America’s case, over the North Pole.
China in 2019 also unveiled a hypersonic medium-range missile, the DF-17, which has a maximum range of around 1,550 miles and is capable of achieving speeds of up to 7,680mph – or 10 times the speed of sound – while carrying a nuclear warhead.