Chinese Missiles News & Discussions
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samsara
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China develops two new airborne ballistic missile systems (June 2018)
While Russia has officially announced the commissioning of a new hypersonic missile known as Kh-47M2 "Kinjhal", which is no more or less an airborne ballistic missile system, China on its side would also be developing two vectors of the same concept but this time in all discretion.
The news was first revealed in early March by Lieutenant General Robert Ashley, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on threats to the national security.
“These capabilities are being augmented with two new air-launched ballistic missiles, one of which may include a nuclear payload - Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley”
Ashley said in his speech that the Chinese Rocket Force is strengthening its conventional and nuclear capabilities to accurately strike targets down to Guam, which is the main US military base in the western Pacific. 'Supporting both the DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile (in fact the DF-21D) and also the DF-26 long-range missile, itself capable of hitting fixed targets on the ground or moving to the sea. All this is complemented by a growing panoply of cruise missiles of all kinds, as well as "two new airborne ballistic missiles, one of which could carry a nuclear charge".
The statement of the director of the DIA, if it gives credibility on the existence of such a development program in China, only confirms in fact rumors circulating for two years, saying that a platform capable of transporting a mid-range anti-ship ballistic missile —derived from the H-6K bomber and equipped with a refueling pole to maintain or increase its range— would have reached the final stage of development. The first maiden flight would have taken place in December 2016.
And the reference H-6N, whose meaning is not known to date, also appears in some recent publications of the Chinese aircraft manufacturer AVIC (see our file "H-6N, HX ... Chinese bomber programs are multiplying").
Unaware of its official designation given by the Chinese armed forces, the US intelligence services have referenced one of these two new Chinese missiles "CH-AS-X-13", AS for Anti-Ship probably, and estimating the reach of the craft at about 3,000 km.
And according to US government sources, relayed by our colleague Ankit Panda in The Diplomat, this Chinese missile has already made five test shots. The first took place in December 2016, and the last one in the last week of January this year.
If it is difficult to reconstitute with open sources the first flight test of the system, since no less than 17 similar ballistic activities were identified during the month of December in 2016, the last test dating from January 2018 seems easier to trace.
Just like the "Kinjhal" whose development is based on a 9M723 short-range Russian ground-to-ground ballistic missile (from the Iskander 9K720 system), it is thought that the Chinese CASIC missile group engineers have adopted the same approach, to reduce the cycle development, basing the design of the "CH-AS-X-13" on the DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile, and more specifically the AShBM DF-21D if the new missile is indeed intended to hit large targets naval vessels at the sea.
Given the relatively large size of the DF-21 / DF-21D, which is 1.4 meters in diameter and 10.7 meters long for the terrestrial version, it is not surprising that the Chinese need design a larger platform than the MiG-31K to transport and launch the new missile.
As for the estimated range of 3,000 km for the "CH-AS-X-13" against about 1,500 km for the DF-21D, this remains consistent when we know that the announced range of "Kinjhal" has been multiplied by four times compared to his twin, ground-to-ground missile.
The question now arises as to the purpose of such an airborne missile system and its possible operational deployment. If this "CH-AS-X-13" is actually designed for anti-ship, especially against aircraft carriers that remain an "obsession" in every sense of the term of the Chinese armed forces over the past 30 years why develop such a capacity when it would duplicate the medium-range DF-21D land-to-sea on the one hand, and the long-range DF-26 on the other?
Without being behind the scenes of little secrets, it is believed that the new "CH-AS-X-13" is being used to expand the range of existing "anti-aircraft carrier" weapons, and to add an extra dimension as well as greater operational flexibility to the global Chinese "Anti Access / Area Denial" (A2/AD) system. This multiplication of offensive vectors would make countermeasures more difficult to maintain and succeed.
Its development also makes it possible to convert the DF-21D Land-Sea, initially limited in range, to double its range to reach the same level as the IRBM DF-26. On the other hand, it does not seem to be technically or operationally relevant to develop an Air-Land version based on it.
And the associated technologies would not be solely dedicated to the military field and could be beneficial to some civilian programs. For example, this could allow CASIC, also a major player in the Chinese aerospace sector, to develop an airborne satellite launcher, similar to what it does with its competitor CASC with a Y-20 transport aircraft.
As for the question on the eventual operational deployment of the missile, it will probably remain in the direction of the ocean, i.e. one towards the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea of the other, with a possible extension to the Indian Ocean.
Given its relatively short development, since the first pre-studies of "anti-aircraft airborne ballistic missile" seem to have begun around 2005, it would be again a "pragmatic" and "contextual" weapon of the Chinese armed forces, as for example the hypersonic glider missile DF-17 and the AVIC hypersonic reconnaissance drone, which has a very precise and targeted objective, and thus would not have a more global utility outside the sphere of the Chinese A2/AD.
One of the Chinese R & D documents from 2005 on the subject of the airborne ballistic missile dedicated to anti-ship missions.
Henri Kenhmann (East Pendulum)
http://www.eastpendulum.com/la-chin...eaux-systemes-de-missile-balistique-aeroporte
While Russia has officially announced the commissioning of a new hypersonic missile known as Kh-47M2 "Kinjhal", which is no more or less an airborne ballistic missile system, China on its side would also be developing two vectors of the same concept but this time in all discretion.
The news was first revealed in early March by Lieutenant General Robert Ashley, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on threats to the national security.
“These capabilities are being augmented with two new air-launched ballistic missiles, one of which may include a nuclear payload - Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley”
Ashley said in his speech that the Chinese Rocket Force is strengthening its conventional and nuclear capabilities to accurately strike targets down to Guam, which is the main US military base in the western Pacific. 'Supporting both the DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile (in fact the DF-21D) and also the DF-26 long-range missile, itself capable of hitting fixed targets on the ground or moving to the sea. All this is complemented by a growing panoply of cruise missiles of all kinds, as well as "two new airborne ballistic missiles, one of which could carry a nuclear charge".
The statement of the director of the DIA, if it gives credibility on the existence of such a development program in China, only confirms in fact rumors circulating for two years, saying that a platform capable of transporting a mid-range anti-ship ballistic missile —derived from the H-6K bomber and equipped with a refueling pole to maintain or increase its range— would have reached the final stage of development. The first maiden flight would have taken place in December 2016.
And the reference H-6N, whose meaning is not known to date, also appears in some recent publications of the Chinese aircraft manufacturer AVIC (see our file "H-6N, HX ... Chinese bomber programs are multiplying").
Unaware of its official designation given by the Chinese armed forces, the US intelligence services have referenced one of these two new Chinese missiles "CH-AS-X-13", AS for Anti-Ship probably, and estimating the reach of the craft at about 3,000 km.
And according to US government sources, relayed by our colleague Ankit Panda in The Diplomat, this Chinese missile has already made five test shots. The first took place in December 2016, and the last one in the last week of January this year.
If it is difficult to reconstitute with open sources the first flight test of the system, since no less than 17 similar ballistic activities were identified during the month of December in 2016, the last test dating from January 2018 seems easier to trace.
Just like the "Kinjhal" whose development is based on a 9M723 short-range Russian ground-to-ground ballistic missile (from the Iskander 9K720 system), it is thought that the Chinese CASIC missile group engineers have adopted the same approach, to reduce the cycle development, basing the design of the "CH-AS-X-13" on the DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile, and more specifically the AShBM DF-21D if the new missile is indeed intended to hit large targets naval vessels at the sea.
Given the relatively large size of the DF-21 / DF-21D, which is 1.4 meters in diameter and 10.7 meters long for the terrestrial version, it is not surprising that the Chinese need design a larger platform than the MiG-31K to transport and launch the new missile.
As for the estimated range of 3,000 km for the "CH-AS-X-13" against about 1,500 km for the DF-21D, this remains consistent when we know that the announced range of "Kinjhal" has been multiplied by four times compared to his twin, ground-to-ground missile.
The question now arises as to the purpose of such an airborne missile system and its possible operational deployment. If this "CH-AS-X-13" is actually designed for anti-ship, especially against aircraft carriers that remain an "obsession" in every sense of the term of the Chinese armed forces over the past 30 years why develop such a capacity when it would duplicate the medium-range DF-21D land-to-sea on the one hand, and the long-range DF-26 on the other?
Without being behind the scenes of little secrets, it is believed that the new "CH-AS-X-13" is being used to expand the range of existing "anti-aircraft carrier" weapons, and to add an extra dimension as well as greater operational flexibility to the global Chinese "Anti Access / Area Denial" (A2/AD) system. This multiplication of offensive vectors would make countermeasures more difficult to maintain and succeed.
Its development also makes it possible to convert the DF-21D Land-Sea, initially limited in range, to double its range to reach the same level as the IRBM DF-26. On the other hand, it does not seem to be technically or operationally relevant to develop an Air-Land version based on it.
And the associated technologies would not be solely dedicated to the military field and could be beneficial to some civilian programs. For example, this could allow CASIC, also a major player in the Chinese aerospace sector, to develop an airborne satellite launcher, similar to what it does with its competitor CASC with a Y-20 transport aircraft.
As for the question on the eventual operational deployment of the missile, it will probably remain in the direction of the ocean, i.e. one towards the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea of the other, with a possible extension to the Indian Ocean.
Given its relatively short development, since the first pre-studies of "anti-aircraft airborne ballistic missile" seem to have begun around 2005, it would be again a "pragmatic" and "contextual" weapon of the Chinese armed forces, as for example the hypersonic glider missile DF-17 and the AVIC hypersonic reconnaissance drone, which has a very precise and targeted objective, and thus would not have a more global utility outside the sphere of the Chinese A2/AD.
One of the Chinese R & D documents from 2005 on the subject of the airborne ballistic missile dedicated to anti-ship missions.
Henri Kenhmann (East Pendulum)
http://www.eastpendulum.com/la-chin...eaux-systemes-de-missile-balistique-aeroporte
LKJ86
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cirr
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LKJ86
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cirr
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Remember this?
It is turning out to be launch platform for next generation hypersonic cruise missile.
Chances are high that the system be put on display come 2019 Military Parade.
The bigger, the faster, the more powerful, the better.
It is turning out to be launch platform for next generation hypersonic cruise missile.
Chances are high that the system be put on display come 2019 Military Parade.
The bigger, the faster, the more powerful, the better.
cirr
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China's hypersonic military projects include spaceplanes and rail guns
https://www.popsci.com/chinas-hypersonic-work-speeds-up
https://www.popsci.com/chinas-hypersonic-work-speeds-up
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