Last week the first rumors arrived (from the USA) of successful tests of a hypersonic weapon carried out by China. According to the last one report relaunched by the Financial Times, the test of this weapon (last July, but only recently revealed) caused a sensation, because this weapon was considered impossible.
The test of the hypersonic weapon saw China "firing" a missile from another spacecraft that was already flying at at least five times the speed of sound, the report said. Many American military officials thought such technology was impossible, and US experts themselves are not sure how China was able to actually conduct the test of this weapon.
Overcoming disorientation
The Financial Times document focuses on the analysis of the data from this test. A procedure that is currently being "reverse engineered" by those who study the consequences of what happened. At present almost everything escapes us, even the very potential of this hypersonic weapon.
What happened: in the test, China first launched what it calls a hypersonic planing vehicle or HGV. The HGV is sent into space mounted aboard a rocket, before re-entering the atmosphere and flying towards its target at more than five times the speed of sound. Vehicles of this type can also function alone as weapons given their speed, but China has apparently used them as a means of transporting other missiles.
The HGV was then able to launch a separate missile, which broke away in the atmosphere over the South China Sea, according to the new report. The hypersonic weapon does not appear to have been launched at a target, however, but fell into the water, the FT reports. This only adds further confusion for US experts.
Hypersonic weapon: the hypotheses
The method and type of the test makes it difficult to interpret, I was saying. Yet, as you will imagine, industry experts make hypotheses about the real use of this "missile launcher" missile that travels at breakneck speed. It could be used to strike earlier and better, of course. However, it could also be a system created to destroy normal anti-aircraft defenses, before launching heavy weapons that would no longer encounter any resistance.
Russia and the United States have long been working on similar technologies (I ignore the status of these projects). What happened, however, suggests that China is far ahead of both.
