A recent Chinese report quoted an insider of China Aerospace Science and Industry Group as saying that the hypersonic DF-17 missile currently under development in China is able to switch targets during its flight, thus greatly increasing the difficulty of intercepting air defense facilities in hostile countries.
In summary, DF-17 can use its ability to fly at a supersonic speed, special ballistic flight similar to “water drift” is used, which makes the traditional anti-missile system almost incapable of calculating its specific position, thus breaking through anti-missile systems, and even directly destroy the enemy’s strategic anti-missile launch position!
The source pointed out that hypersonic DF-17 ballistic missile has the ability to launch both conventional weapons and nuclear weapons.
He said that two branches of China Aerospace Science and Industry Group are now fully developing these high-tech technologies.
In addition, there have been reports in the media that DF-17 has conducted 6 trials and all of them have been successful. It seems that the rumors that DF-17 missile will reach the capacity for mass operations in 2020 will become a reality. In addition to China, the United States and Russia are also increasing their investment, hoping to catch up with China in the field of hypersonic gliding technology.
According to public information, DF-17 can break through existing missile defense systems in the world by this unique skill.
Therefore, the birth of DF-17 has improved China’s nuclear deterrence. DF-17 hypersonic missile is China’s first medium-range ballistic missile with a hypersonic glider. The glider’s warhead is also tailor-made for DF-17 ballistic missile, and successfully passed the world’s first gliding system test to meet actual combat needs.
DF-17 hypersonic missile has a range of 1,800-2,500 kilometers. After adopting advanced hypersonic glider design, DF-17 not only has the characteristics of ballistic missiles extremely difficult to intercept, but also can glide in the atmosphere and its edges, and is aggravated by aerodynamics, so that anti-missile systems cannot accurately intercept it.
According to foreign media, it is known from the experimental information exposed in the past that DF-17 hypersonic missile is usually tested in the test launch center located in northwestern China. The missile has a flying distance of more than 1000 kilometers. The powerful thrust of the Dongfeng Ballistic Missile can help the high-speed gliding warheads that it carries to break through the atmosphere, complete the initial flight and enter space. And the air radome would be thrown away and would quickly fly to the edge of the atmosphere. Then ballistic flight state ends and enters the atmosphere or edge gliding flight under hypersonic speed.
At an altitude of 60,000 meters, DF-17 begins to enter the hypersonic gliding state. At the same time, it can also adjust the maneuvering state in real time by means of aerodynamic force. Its ballistic flexibility is very high, which makes anti-missile systems hard to intercept.
Technically, the high-speed gliders carried by the rocket-powered blasters are able to get the speed required to enter the gliding, and the technical difficulty and cost required are very low. When the final gliding weapon approaches the descending stage, after reaching the predetermined height, it is separated from the booster and the fairing, and the small booster rocket engine that comes with it is used to achieve the ballistic change and enter the gliding stage, which is not difficult. Such techniques are often used in previous launch vehicles and split-type multi-warhead missiles.
The advanced nature of DF-17 is mainly reflected in the unpredictable mobility of its supersonic gliding section, which is why it would make anti-missile systems mad.
First of all, the glider’s pneumatic control level can be quickly decelerated from very high speed to 6 to 8 Mach’s hypersonic section, avoiding loss of control under the powerful effect of too fast flight speed and atmospheric contact moment, and also guarantee time to correct and circumvent. There is also a very high requirement for the aerodynamic capability of the weapon, even in the hypersonic stage, it cannot be taken lightly, and in case of the slightest carelessness, the target deviation would be increased, or the structure would be damaged.
With the formation of DF-17 missile force, it has been reported that Western military enterprises are now considering whether the anti-missile systems based on THAAD and land-based Aegis should be increased.
As is known to all, the above two anti-missile systems were originally positioned to intercept incoming medium-range ballistic missiles. However, due to the emergence of missiles with superior evasive capabilities such as DF-17 hypersonic missile, in order to improve the interception of anti-missile missiles, increasing the number of deployments is also a good way to overcome their shortcomings.
According to analysis, THAAD developed for traditional ballistic missiles has a very low probability of hitting DF-17 missiles.