Recently, China’s CCTV reviewed the first wide-area aircraft air release test conducted by China on September 21, 2018, and showed for the first time the three wide-area vehicle scaled-down models involved in the test, namely, D18-1S, 2S, and 3S, which are suspected to be “Rods of God” weapons.
In that test conducted in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center of China in 2018, the three models fell into a free flight state after being lifted to high altitude by a balloon, exceeded the speed of sound in acceleration to enter pneumatic bouncing, and finally opened their parachutes to land and recover. This unique test has opened the minds of many Chinese netizens, who believe that it indicates the ultimate weapon “Rods of God” will soon be launched in China.
The so-called “Rods of God” is a kind of space-based kinetic energy weapon concept from the U.S. “Star Wars” program during the Cold War, deploying pole-sized tungsten rod kinetic energy bombs on artificial satellites from space to ground targets. When dropped, tungsten rods can reach a maximum velocity of Mach 10 at the end stage and produce a kinetic energy equivalent to 11.5 tons of TNT when hitting a target, comparable to that of a tactical nuclear weapon without causing any radioactive contamination. Due to the high velocity and small radar cross-section, this weapon is extremely difficult to defend against, but the “Rods from God” has never been practical due to the challenges of developing precision guidance technology and the high cost of locating tungsten rod munitions in orbit.
From the complex shape of the wide-area aircraft of China, they should only be free-flying models to verify the aerodynamic layout of a hypersonic weapon, which have nothing to do with the “Rods of God”, but are close to it in terms of delivery method, according to analyst Bai Zhandao. The large amount of flight data obtained in the tests will help the development of the second generation of Chinese hypersonic aircraft, it is obvious that hypersonic weapons are far superior to “Rod From God” in both tactical use and cost, and there is no need to be afraid of being attacked by anti-satellite weapons.
The so-called wide-area aircraft should be able to adapt to the aerodynamic layout of the vehicle to fly above Mach 6 after re-entry at hypersonic speed, but also to slow down to a lower speed and then aim and evade at the end of the flight to improve the defense penetration capability and achieve precision strikes.
To achieve this goal, the D18-1S and -3S adopt the traditional multi-body aerodynamics, except that the 1S is single-droptail and the -3S is double-droptail, while the D18-2S adopts parafoil aerodynamics that is very rare at supersonic speeds, with the entire fuselage suspended beneath the wings, which may have even greater advantages in terms of internal load placement. Regardless of the layout, the wide-area aircraft, with their high lift-to-drag ratio, can increase the range and maneuverability of hypersonic weapons, and easily penetrate any existing anti-missile defense system to intercept them. The research of wide-area vehicles will also contribute to the development of China’s airplane or supersonic airliner, said Bai Zhandao.
Bai believes that the public exposure of the D18-1S, 2S, and 3S models naturally indicates that China already has a more advanced design of hypersonic weapons, instead of the so-called “Rods of God”; therefore, a generous display of the unsuccessful options would not be a big problem but could play an uplifting role among the Chinese people.