CHINA RUMOURED TO HAVE LAUNCHED ‘HYPERSONIC’ GLIDER
Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson. Image via Chinese News Service
ON 16th JULY 2021, a statement from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation claimed that they had successfully demonstrated their reusable suborbital demonstration project vehicle. The test was “a complete success”’, according to a source from the First Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group. They went on to state:
“The complete success of this project has laid a solid foundation for the development of my country's reusable space transportation technology and has taken a solid first step in achieving innovative development and independent control in the field”.
Fast forward to 16th October 2021: the Financial Times reported (subscription required) that China had not only successfully tested a hypersonic vehicle but that it had also launched a missile that hit speeds of more than five times the speed of sound. Two days later on 18th October 2021, when the question was raised by a Bloomberg journalist during a press conference, these claims were denied by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian. Zhao went on to state:
“As we understand, this was a routine test of a space vehicle to verify technology of spacecraft's reusability. After separating from the space vehicle before its return, the supporting devices will burn up when it's falling in the atmosphere and the debris will fall into the high seas. It is not a missile but a space vehicle.”
Hypersonic weapons fly a lot closer to earth than Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), making them much harder to be successfully tracked on radar systems. General John Hyten, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the No. 2 person in the U.S. military, spoke to CBS News regarding this test:
"It went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided all the way back to China, that impacted a target in China.”
“China has already deployed one medium-range hypersonic weapon, while the U.S. is not yet at that stage.”
- General John Hyten, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
China could well be attempting to implement “first strike” capabilities, making it possible to launch long range nuclear weapons anywhere in the world. The US is currently developing its own hypersonic weapons but at a slower rate than that of China, who has reportedly carried out hundreds of hypersonic tests in the last five years, whereas the US have conducted less than ten.
Speaking at a recent event hosted by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute, Lieutenant General Chance Saltzman, Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Operations, Cyber, and Nuclear said that China’s new hypersonic weapons system is able to stay in space for an extended period of time.
The Chinese test of the reusable suborbital demonstration project vehicle was launched from Xinbarag Youqi Baogede Airport (XRQ), near Hulun Lake, some 200km southwest of Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, which opened on 26th December 2017.
It could now be considered that such objects may well be viewed as UAP by those wishing to deflect attention towards foreign adversaries instead of more exotic origins.
