China announces country's success in testing hypersonic cruise missiles. meanwhile, until recently, the only country, with a working prototype of a hypersonic rocket, was Russia.
China Central Television (CCTV) announced a breakthrough in the field of hypersonic weapons, perfect team of the Institute of Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of China under the leadership of Fan Xuejun. How true are the statements of the PRC on the development of its own hypersonic missiles, still unclear. One side, even American analysts like Douglas Barry, they say, that for China, the development of hypersonic weapons is a matter of the next few years. Especially, that Beijing does not spare efforts and funds for research in this direction.
In the autumn 2019 Sina published material, which described the benefits of the DF-17 rocket, demonstrated at a military parade in Beijing, over similar Russian and American developments. According to the article, rocket speed is 1800-2500 km, and the separation of the hypersonic glider from the rocket accelerator is carried out at a height 60 km. After that, you can adjust the trajectory of the warhead, which allows you to destroy missiles, issued by enemy missile defense systems. Moreover, the data on the specific speed of the hypersonic part differ significantly: from 5,5 M to 7,5.
US Department of Defense Intelligence Director Lieutenant General Robert Ashley Jr. notes, that China has recently conducted more missile tests, than all the rest of the world, taken together. In this way, not excluded, that success in creating hypersonic missiles really takes place. But how then can there be doubts about the realism of Chinese projects?
Chinese hypersonic missiles DF-17 at the parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the PRC
Everything is very simple: until recently, China was and remains one of the largest buyers of military aircraft engines from the Russian Federation. This indicates, that the PRC, despite obvious efforts, so far it has not been possible to create their own well-functioning aircraft engines, and the Chinese side is forced to buy them from Russia. But at the same time, Chinese engineers claim, that they developed their own hypersonic rocket engine.
Last January about this, in particular, Specialists from the Chengdu Aviation Research and Design Institute reported. The power plant they proposed combined in one housing a turbojet, turbocharged ramjet and jet engines. Such a combined engine, according to Chinese experts, will be able to accelerate aircraft from zero speed to 10 chisel Maha.
At first, at speed, jet engine used, overclocking more 2 Mach he turns off and is replaced by a rocket engine, and at a speed of 4 Mach and above, a ramjet engine is switched on. All of them operate on aviation kerosene., and the oxidizer in rocket and ramjet engines is liquid oxygen.
In this way, Chinese project looks quite real. China should not be underestimated, even if China is not going smoothly with conventional aircraft engines. It’s just that the Chinese leadership didn’t consider the last direction especially priority., since these engines can always be purchased from neighboring Russia. A completely different topic - own hypersonic weapons, whose creation is so important within the framework of the strategy proclaimed by Xi Jinping to strengthen the power of the Chinese state.
China's attention to developments in the field of hypersonic weapons is not accidental. Now, Beijing is planning to “arrange” missile defense systems with their help., located in the Asia-Pacific region, actually around the perimeter of its eastern borders. The success of military competition with the United States in the Pacific will depend on the success of Chinese developments.. US military bases deployed in the region (first of all, in Japan and South Korea), as well as plying in the Pacific, American aircraft carriers are the main target for hypersonic missiles, while the latter will have to circumvent US missile defense.
Ilya Polonsky
