China’s Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper on Tuesday published a graphic showing the potential flight of China’s recent test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, following disclosure of the report in Free Beacon.China’s Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper on Tuesday published a graphic showing the potential flight of China’s recent test of a hypersonic glide vehicle.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and two senior committee members voiced concerns Monday about China’s first test of a new high-speed missile vehicle.
“While round after round of defense cuts have knocked America’s technological advantage on its back, the Chinese and other competitor nations push towards military parity with the United States; in some cases, as in this one, they appear to be leaping ahead of us,” Chairman Rep. Howard P. “Buck “ McKeon (R., Calif.) and Reps. Randy Forbes (R., Va.) and Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) said in a statement.
Forbes is chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on seapower and projection forces and Rogers leads the strategic forces subcommittee.
The lawmakers commented on a report published Monday in the Washington Free Beacon revealing that China last week carried out the first flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, a new military capability designed to deliver warheads at ultra-high speeds.
Defense officials disclosed that China’s new hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed WU-14, was flight tested above China at extremely high speed.
The vehicle is similar to U.S. hypersonic vehicles under development as part of a program called “prompt global strike,” a U.S. strategic strike system involving rapid attacks at any location on earth within minutes.
Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) also expressed concerns about China’s high-technology military advance.
“Considering the Obama administration’s penchant for continually indebting ourselves to the Chinese government rather than taking the necessary steps to put our nation on a strong fiscal footing, these reports about China’s military advancements are all the more disturbing,” Cornyn said. “We cannot allow ourselves to take second seat to any military power, and our mounting debt to China is forcing us to do so.”
The development of high-tech weapons like hypersonic missiles “does nothing to support peaceful coexistence in the Pacific,” the three House leaders said.
“We have dithered for three decades now, delaying badly needed replacement equipment for our troops, relying on hardware that was built during the Reagan years,” McKeon, Forbes, and Rogers said.
“The Asia Pacific is fast becoming a powder keg. Allowing nations that do not share our respect for free and open avenues of commerce to gain a strategic advantage over the United States and her allies only brings us closer to lighting the fuse.”
Kenneth deGraffenreid, a former White House intelligence policymaker during the Reagan administration and Pentagon official during the George W. Bush administration, said the emergence of China’s hypersonic weapons is alarming.
He compared China’s military buildup to that undertaken by the Soviet Union during the détente period of the 1970s.
“We are seeing dramatic military developments by the Chinese,” he said. “They are making strategic advances and it seems that nobody is noticing it.”
Only several years ago, large numbers of U.S. officials and academic specialists dismissed Chinese military developments as insignificant and non-threatening, deGraffenreid said.
“In China, we’re seeing a rate of military change that is huge,” he said, adding that China’s goals are not limited to being a regional power but are building long-range range strategic capabilities.
The hypersonic program appears to be part of China’s efforts to negate U.S. missile defenses. “That is dramatic,” deGraffenreid said. “Hypersonics are not just an advanced technology, they’re a game changer, strategically.”
DeGraffenreid, a former senior counterintelligence policymaker, also suggested China likely obtained the hypersonic technology from the United States. “We know the Chinese have a campaign to develop strategic capabilities by stealing them from us,” he said.
A Chinese embassy spokeswoman did not return emails seeking comment. A spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment.
Defense analysts said the hypersonic test is a major advance for China’s high technology weapons systems, often dubbed “assassin’s mace” arms. The weapons include cyber weapons, strategic and conventional missiles, anti-satellite weapons, and other high-tech arms.
Defense officials said the new hypersonic vehicle appears to be designed for launch atop a missile. It is boosted to near space, around 62 miles from the earth, and then glides and maneuvers to its target at speeds of between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,840 miles per hour and 7,680 miles per hour.
Those speeds are designed to make it more difficult for long-range missile defenses, like those deployed by the United States, to counter the high-speed vehicles that can be armed with both nuclear and conventional warheads.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool, confirmed the test but declined to provide details.
The Chinese test is widely viewed in intelligence and defense circles as a military surprise—the rapid development leading to a test of a cutting edge military capability.
The Pentagon’s most recent annual report on China’s military revealed that China opened in May 2012 the world’s largest hypersonic wind tunnel that is being used to test hypersonic vehicles traveling between Mach 5 and Mach 9.
Additionally, Russia is racing to develop hypersonic arms. The Russian government has said it is developing hypersonic weapons, including missile vehicles capable of penetrating U.S. missile defenses with nuclear warheads.
U.S. hypersonic vehicles include the Lockheed HTV-2 or Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, an unmanned, missile-launched maneuverable aircraft that glides to earth at speeds up to Mach 20, or 13,000 miles per hour.
A second U.S. program is called the Boeing X-51 WaveRider, an aircraft-launched, scramjet-powered vehicle that is being designed for hypersonic attack, reconnaissance, and commercial transport.
美称中国首测高超音速武器 速度达音速10倍
美国媒体猜测中国高超音速武器测试示意图。
来源: 环球时报-环球网(北京)
http://news.163.com/air/14/0115/09/9IKD0HQO00014P42.html
【环球网综合报道】美国华盛顿自由灯塔报网站1月13日刊发消息称，美国五角大楼官员提到，1月9日，中国在其境内进行了一次高超音速导弹“武器”试验，这种导弹将被用于突防美国的导弹防御系统。
一位不愿意透漏姓名的美国官员称，这种试验飞行器已经被五角大楼暂时命名为WU-14，该飞行器是一种新型高超音速武器。
美媒称，这款高超声速飞行器标志着中国新型战略核武器和常规导弹发展计划又迈出了重要一步。
据称，这种高超音速飞行器可能被安装在一种由洲际导弹改造的运载火箭中，从地面发射后，与火箭助推器分离，然后再入大气层进行无动力高速飞行，据称，其速度高达马赫数10(也就是音速的10倍)。
据悉，美国的HTV-2高超音速飞行器在2010年和2011年的两次实验，先后因为飞控和激波扰动的问题，在滑行阶段达到马赫数20之后就失控坠毁了。外界普遍认为，俄罗斯在2005至2009年之间也进行过高超音速武器试验，具体不详。
China’s Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper on Tuesday published a graphic showing the potential flight of China’s recent test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, following disclosure of the report in Free Beacon.China’s Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper on Tuesday published a graphic showing the potential flight of China’s recent test of a hypersonic glide vehicle.
Congress Voices Concerns About Chinese Hypersonic Missile Test
High-speed missile vehicle a technological ‘leap’ for Beijing
by Bill Gertz
http://freebeacon.com/congress-voices-concerns-about-chinese-hypersonic-missile-test/
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and two senior committee members voiced concerns Monday about China’s first test of a new high-speed missile vehicle.
“While round after round of defense cuts have knocked America’s technological advantage on its back, the Chinese and other competitor nations push towards military parity with the United States; in some cases, as in this one, they appear to be leaping ahead of us,” Chairman Rep. Howard P. “Buck “ McKeon (R., Calif.) and Reps. Randy Forbes (R., Va.) and Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) said in a statement.
Forbes is chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on seapower and projection forces and Rogers leads the strategic forces subcommittee.
The lawmakers commented on a report published Monday in the Washington Free Beacon revealing that China last week carried out the first flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, a new military capability designed to deliver warheads at ultra-high speeds.
Defense officials disclosed that China’s new hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed WU-14, was flight tested above China at extremely high speed.
The vehicle is similar to U.S. hypersonic vehicles under development as part of a program called “prompt global strike,” a U.S. strategic strike system involving rapid attacks at any location on earth within minutes.
Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) also expressed concerns about China’s high-technology military advance.
“Considering the Obama administration’s penchant for continually indebting ourselves to the Chinese government rather than taking the necessary steps to put our nation on a strong fiscal footing, these reports about China’s military advancements are all the more disturbing,” Cornyn said. “We cannot allow ourselves to take second seat to any military power, and our mounting debt to China is forcing us to do so.”
The development of high-tech weapons like hypersonic missiles “does nothing to support peaceful coexistence in the Pacific,” the three House leaders said.
“We have dithered for three decades now, delaying badly needed replacement equipment for our troops, relying on hardware that was built during the Reagan years,” McKeon, Forbes, and Rogers said.
“The Asia Pacific is fast becoming a powder keg. Allowing nations that do not share our respect for free and open avenues of commerce to gain a strategic advantage over the United States and her allies only brings us closer to lighting the fuse.”
Kenneth deGraffenreid, a former White House intelligence policymaker during the Reagan administration and Pentagon official during the George W. Bush administration, said the emergence of China’s hypersonic weapons is alarming.
He compared China’s military buildup to that undertaken by the Soviet Union during the détente period of the 1970s.
“We are seeing dramatic military developments by the Chinese,” he said. “They are making strategic advances and it seems that nobody is noticing it.”
Only several years ago, large numbers of U.S. officials and academic specialists dismissed Chinese military developments as insignificant and non-threatening, deGraffenreid said.
“In China, we’re seeing a rate of military change that is huge,” he said, adding that China’s goals are not limited to being a regional power but are building long-range range strategic capabilities.
The hypersonic program appears to be part of China’s efforts to negate U.S. missile defenses. “That is dramatic,” deGraffenreid said. “Hypersonics are not just an advanced technology, they’re a game changer, strategically.”
DeGraffenreid, a former senior counterintelligence policymaker, also suggested China likely obtained the hypersonic technology from the United States. “We know the Chinese have a campaign to develop strategic capabilities by stealing them from us,” he said.
A Chinese embassy spokeswoman did not return emails seeking comment. A spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment.
Defense analysts said the hypersonic test is a major advance for China’s high technology weapons systems, often dubbed “assassin’s mace” arms. The weapons include cyber weapons, strategic and conventional missiles, anti-satellite weapons, and other high-tech arms.
Defense officials said the new hypersonic vehicle appears to be designed for launch atop a missile. It is boosted to near space, around 62 miles from the earth, and then glides and maneuvers to its target at speeds of between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,840 miles per hour and 7,680 miles per hour.
Those speeds are designed to make it more difficult for long-range missile defenses, like those deployed by the United States, to counter the high-speed vehicles that can be armed with both nuclear and conventional warheads.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool, confirmed the test but declined to provide details.
The Chinese test is widely viewed in intelligence and defense circles as a military surprise—the rapid development leading to a test of a cutting edge military capability.
The Pentagon’s most recent annual report on China’s military revealed that China opened in May 2012 the world’s largest hypersonic wind tunnel that is being used to test hypersonic vehicles traveling between Mach 5 and Mach 9.
Additionally, Russia is racing to develop hypersonic arms. The Russian government has said it is developing hypersonic weapons, including missile vehicles capable of penetrating U.S. missile defenses with nuclear warheads.
U.S. hypersonic vehicles include the Lockheed HTV-2 or Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, an unmanned, missile-launched maneuverable aircraft that glides to earth at speeds up to Mach 20, or 13,000 miles per hour.
A second U.S. program is called the Boeing X-51 WaveRider, an aircraft-launched, scramjet-powered vehicle that is being designed for hypersonic attack, reconnaissance, and commercial transport.
中国が超高速ミサイル実験…米防衛網破る目的か
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/world/news/20140116-OYT1T01148.htm
中国が１月９日、音速の１０倍以上の速さで飛行する超高速ミサイル「ＷＵ１４」の発射実験を行ったことが１５日、明らかになった。
米情報サイト「ワシントン・フリー・ビーコン」などによると、このミサイルは、米国のミサイル防衛網を破ることが目的とされ、同様の超高速ミサイルは、米国、ロシアも開発を進めているという。
米太平洋軍のロックリア司令官は１５日、ワシントン郊外で講演し、同ミサイルについて、「米国よりも開発が進んでいる」と述べ、警戒感を示した。
一方、中国共産党機関紙・人民日報系の環球時報など中国メディアは１６日、中国国防省高官が、今回のミサイル発射実験に関し、「国内での計画に基づいた科学研究テストは正常であり、特定の国家、目標に向けたものではない」と語り、発射実験の事実を認めたと伝えた。