Details have emerged of China's tests of a hypersonic glider, a combat gliding unit for ballistic missiles. Before hitting the target, the device flew around the planet, which was a very unpleasant surprise for the US military.
According to the Financial Times, the nuclear-powered glider was launched by a Long March 2C rocket in August. The publication came to this conclusion after analyzing the official statistics of the PRC on space programs. China kept silent about the 77th flight of the 2C, announcing the 76th and 78th. The last one was completed at the end of August.
The Chinese combat unit missed the designated point by a couple of dozen miles, but this is not encouraging, given the other capabilities of the system, writes The Drive. The glider's ability to maneuver at hypersonic speed and cover considerable distances makes useless not only the existing missile defense systems in the United States, but even early warning means. They are designed to observe objects flying along classical ballistic routes with more or less known speeds and trajectories.
If the object of interest is moving in the atmosphere at hypersonic speed and along an unpredictable trajectory - and the Chinese glider flew just like that - then the effectiveness of traditional SPRN and missile defense radars drops to zero. An indirect confirmation of this is the fact that the launch date of the device was calculated according to Beijing statistics. The ability of the combat unit to fly around the Earth shows that it can attack from any side, bypassing missile defense systems.
"China has achieved tremendous success, including in the field of global strikes from space," stated US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. The head of NORAD (US missile defense System), General Glenn Vanherk, added that the Chinese glider "will create significant problems for our ability to provide threat warning and attack assessment." Simply put, even if NORAD notices a warhead, it will not be able to calculate its trajectory and provide data for targeting anti-missiles.
The only thing that can console the Americans is that China will need to finalize the ICBMs to install gliders on them. Long March 2C is a space launch vehicle. But, given the pace of the creation of new weapons in China, it is unlikely to take much time.
By the way, the Russian Sarmat ICBM also has the ability to fly "through both poles". And it is planned to equip it with a hypersonic glider "Avangard".
Anton Valagin
