China has successfully tested its first hypersonic missile delivery vehicle capable of penetrating US missile defense system and delivering nuclear warheads with record breaking speeds, Pentagon officials have confirmed.
The new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 was allegedly spotted flying at record-breaking speeds during a flight test over China on January 9, an anonymous Pentagon official told the Washington Free Beacon.
The new weapon delivery system is reportedly designed to be
launched as the final stage of China’s intercontinental ballistic
missile, which would approach its target at a velocity of up to
10 times the speed of sound. Hypersonic speed range lies between
Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,840 to 7,680 miles per hour.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the Chinese test launch but
declined to provide details.
“We routinely monitor foreign defense activities and we are
aware of this test,” Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool, a Marine Corps
spokesman, told the Washington Free Beacon.
“However, we don’t comment on our intelligence or assessments
of foreign weapon systems,” Pool said in a statement.
“We encourage greater transparency regarding their defense
investments and objectives to avoid miscalculation,” he
added.
Hypersonic vehicles, which are also being designed by the US,
India and Russia, are developed for precise targeting, rapid
delivery of weapons, and are being tested to outmaneuver hostile
missiles and space defenses.
“A boost glide missile theoretically would be intended to
counter existing mid-course missile defenses,” Mark Stokes,
a former US Air Force officer told the Washington Free Beacon.
Strokes explained that China is developing two hypersonic flight
vehicle programs – one believed to be of a post-boost vehicle
designed to be deployed from a missile that pursues its target
from near space, or some 62 miles from earth. Basing his
hypothesis on emerging reports from China, Stokes believes that
hypersonic glide vehicles could reach Mach 12 speeds of up to
9,127 miles per hour, potentially compromising a US missile
defense.
“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,” Rick Fisher, an analyst at the International
Assessment and Strategy Center, told the Washington Free Beacon.
“With the integration of strategic analysis and planning into
technical research, China’s pursuit of hypersonic and
high-precision weaponry promises to be faster and more focused
than that associated with its previous [anti-satellite] and
[ballistic missile defense] related research and programs,”
Lora Saalman, a specialist on Chinese strategic systems with the
Carnegie Endowment Saalman said in an email to the publication.
“This recent test is a manifestation of this trend.”
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,” Fisher said.
In May, the Pentagon’s assessment of Chinese capabilities
suggested that China built the world’s largest shockwave
hypersonic wind tunnel capable of generating test flying
conditions of up to Mach 9 speeds.
Two Chinese technical papers from December 2012 and April 2013
revealed that the country is developing precision guidance
systems designed to be directed via satellite. The second Chinese
paper concluded that hypersonic weapons pose “a new aerospace
threat.”
Current American hypersonic research is being conducted through
the FALCON program in association with the Pentagon and Air
Force. The US is in the process of perfecting Lockheed HTV-2, an
unmanned, missile-launched aircraft capable of gaining speeds of
up to Mach 20, or 13,000 miles per hour. The US Air Force is also
testing the X-37B Space Plane, which has been orbiting earth
since December 2012.
At the same time Boeing is working on the X-51 WaveRider, a
jet-fueled, air-breathing hypersonic rocket developed for the Air
Force to be used for hypersonic attack and reconnaissance
missions.
Russia too has confirmed the development of similar ultrasonic
technology. The Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence
Center said in its annual report that Russia is building “a
new class of hypersonic vehicle” that would “allow
Russian strategic missiles to penetrate missile defense systems.”
“We are experiencing a revolution in military science,”
Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said last June,
after the 4th test of an advanced road-mobile ICBM, a
“missile defense killer” called the RS-26 Rubezh
(‘frontier’). “Neither current nor future American missile
defense systems will be able to prevent that missile from hitting
a target dead on.” Moscow is also developing the S-500 air
and space defense system, with interceptors capable of shooting
down hypersonic missiles.