Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

China Unlikely Testing Hypersonic Missiles in Secret: Military Expert Questions Authenticity of the Sources
Epoch Times ^ | 10/22/2021 | Jessica Mao

Posted on 10/22/2021 8:00:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

British media reported that China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August, and its performance caught U.S. intelligence services by surprise. However, a military expert raises questions on the authenticity of the sources.

The Financial Times, a British media, on Oct. 17 exclusively cited five anonymous sources as saying that the Chinese Communist military launched a rocket carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle that flew in low orbital space and then cruised to its target. “The test showed that China had made astounding progress on hypersonic weapons and was far more advanced than U.S. officials realized.”

Xia Luoshan, a military commentator and host of Epoch Times’ “Military Affairs” column, questions the veracity of five unnamed sources cited by the report. “A typical anonymous source, obviously unofficial, which in the least does not convince us that it is true.”

“In addition, the report does not say where the missile landed or what type of target aimed at,” Xia said, “For example, where the target was, whether the missile circled the globe and returned to the target area in China, whether the target was on the ground or at sea, it was fixed or moving, and so on.”

Absent such information, it is difficult to judge the truthfulness of the information and the actual capabilities of the missile, Xia said.

The Financial Times quoted a Chinese security expert with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) military, saying that the weapon was developed by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), a research institute under a state-owned company.

The hypersonic glide vehicle was reportedly launched on a Long March rocket used for the CCP’s space program. The CCP usually announces the launch of Long March rockets, but this time it apparently concealed the test, reported The Financial Times.

On Oct. 18, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied that China had tested hypersonic missiles, claiming just a routine test to verify q spacecraft’s reusable technology.

That was the CCP’s usual response “of course, the CCP does not want the outside [world] to know its actual situation, perhaps to create an impression of terror,” Xia said.

Assuming that the Financial Times’ sources are true, Xia continued, the missile looks like a large-size DF-17, a Chinese medium-range ballistic missile that might be able to travel longer distances if it is carried by a larger rocket to reach higher orbital altitude and speed.

As quoted in three sources from The Financial Times, the missile missed its target by about two dozen miles.

“This is an outrageous error,” said Xia. “If it is carrying a conventional warhead, basically impossible to pose any real threat to the target. But if it’s a nuclear warhead, it’s a human self-destruct mode, and the CCP itself would invite a greater degree of a retaliatory nuclear attack, which would be tantamount to suicide.”

Xia pointed out that The U.S. typical UGM-133A Trident II ballistic missile can carry multiple W88 or W76 nuclear warheads with a range of more than 11,000 kilometers and a flight speed of 24 Mach (about 29,401 kph), with a circumferential error of only 90–120 meters.

The United States has also stealth bombers and fighters capable of carrying nuclear bombs that can penetrate deep into the interior to carry out precision bombings on the CCP’s sensitive targets. Nuclear warheads can also attack targets underground with an accuracy of fewer than 10 meters, killing targets while minimizing damage to surrounding civilians and facilities, the military expert said.

The British report said that the hypersonic weapons travel at five times the speed of sound and do not follow the fixed parabolic trajectory of ballistic missiles, making them more difficult to track.

“But that doesn’t mean it can’t be intercepted, it is possible to be intercepted during the cruise phase of flight, just less successful,” said Xia, also indicating the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles have long been able to attack fixed targets with precision at over 20 times the speed of sound.

“Because the U.S. has not yet made any official comments about it … there is no way for the outside world to verify [whether China tested a Hypersonic Missile].

“Anyway, this is enough to attract the attention of the U.S. military,” Xia said.

The Pentagon did not comment on the report, but John Kirby, spokesperson of the Pentagon told The Financial Times, “We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue, capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond … That is one reason why we hold China as our number-one pacing challenge.”



TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: agitprop; australia; china; hypersonicmissiles; india; japan; korea; scaretactics; taiwan; waronterror

1 posted on 10/22/2021 8:00:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I’ve noticed Financial Times has been pushing the China is indefatigably powerful idea.

They seem to be a ChiCom propaganda outlet.


2 posted on 10/22/2021 8:03:53 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This reminds me of the “missile gap” hoax of 1960. America’s military has a ton of issues, but being behind Red China technologically is not one of them.


3 posted on 10/22/2021 8:16:09 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This pathetic attempt at reason reminds me of the years when many people were warning FDR about allowing all the millions of tons of scrap metals that were constantly being shipped from the U.S. to Japan...

FDR was explicitly warned by a cabinet member that the metal would return to the U.S. in the form of bombs... And it did...

Essentially they were ridiculed or dismissed outright...
Today we’d tell them to wear larger tinfoil hats...

Similar to the warnings during the 50’s and 60’s and 80’s that the U.S. faced a communist threat to conquer the U.S. through the use of American citizens...

More tinfoil hats...

Now look at where we are now...
A politically and morally conquered balkanized country living under a dark and growing communist tyranny...

No longer possessing the smallest semblance of a Nation....


4 posted on 10/22/2021 8:18:28 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another Sam Adams now that we desperately need him?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
The "hypersonic gap" is developing but is it another tactic that has proven to work in the past?

We had the Bomber gap and then the missile gap, both phenomena of the cold war. The soviets had nowhere near the capabilities they claimed. But, Khrushchev pushed the lies about numbers and capability to bluff us. The bluff worked.

In this case IMO China is creating a sense of fear in us that will prevent military reaction to their impending invasion of Taiwan. If they can bluff us out of a response, Taiwan is easy pickings.

5 posted on 10/22/2021 8:25:21 PM PDT by pfflier
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pfflier

I think we have a mineshaft gap and it must not be allowed!


6 posted on 10/22/2021 8:57:35 PM PDT by glorgau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Well, china could be telling the truth

they aren’t great on metallurgy as they cant even produce their own advanced jet fighter engines

hard to believe they can make a rocket that can go hypersonic for that long and not have parts of it burn up


7 posted on 10/22/2021 8:57:46 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Orbital velocity in low earth orbit is Mach 25.

The chinese are claiming this speed in a vacuum is hyper-sonic.

They are word warping just a wee wee bit.

All they have is a orbital re-entry vehicle that doesn’t quite burn up all it’s orbital velocity before hitting the ground.

And only misses the target by about 25 miles...

FOBS (Fractional Orbit Bombardment Systems) were banned by SALTII. China was not a signatory to this agreement.


8 posted on 10/22/2021 8:58:59 PM PDT by null and void (LGBTQ = Let's Get Biden To Quit, FORK/N'A = First Uttery Cancel Kamala/Nancy Axed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

bkmk


9 posted on 10/22/2021 9:02:06 PM PDT by sauropod
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: glorgau

Plenty of us have gotten the shaft since 2020.


10 posted on 10/22/2021 9:06:39 PM PDT by pfflier
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I read the FT articles, and the Global times articles,

They did not seem credible to me.

I am sure they are not the only country who wants and is developing this capability.


The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding

Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination — with the eyes of the world
We stare…


11 posted on 10/22/2021 9:27:44 PM PDT by algore ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Secret Agent Man

The rocket gets the post boost vehicle into a parabolic trajectory and separates from the post boost vehicle. The post boost vehicle separates from the warhead and falls away. The warhead re-enters the atmosphere and must survive the heating due to atmospheric friction until it reaches its detonation point. What happens to the rocket and post boost vehicle are pretty much irrelevant once the warhead separates.


12 posted on 10/22/2021 9:56:58 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

China makes, most everything sold in America.

They are capable of making most anything.

And trying to always advance.

Always.


13 posted on 10/23/2021 12:37:06 AM PDT by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: algore

Thanks for quoting a Rush song. I recognized it immediately.


14 posted on 10/23/2021 5:05:04 AM PDT by backwoods-engineer (But what do I know? I'm just a backwoods engineer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
“This is an outrageous error,” said Xia. “If it is carrying a conventional warhead, basically impossible to pose any real threat to the target. But if it's a nuclear warhead, it's a human self-destruct mode, and the CCP itself would invite a greater degree of a retaliatory nuclear attack, which would be tantamount to suicide.”


The point of that comment is that the CCP would NEVER do anything that would be “tantamount to suicide”.

And as I've been saying since this news appeared, its fake, made up, in line with the current Party propaganda that ‘China, under the CCP, is the greatest nation in the world’. Worse, as the article points out , a country that cannot make jet engine crystalline turbine blades, cannot create the metallurgy to create a hypersonic missile, let alone one which does the currently impossible.

Believe it if you want, panic if you must, but best to save it for when the CCP unleashes its genetic bio-weapon, of which covid was merely the data gathering mechanism for how the rest of the world would respond.

15 posted on 10/23/2021 5:11:12 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ifinnegan
I’ve noticed Financial Times has been pushing the China is indefatigably powerful idea..

I'm starting the get that old feeling again. Remember how "powerful" the USSR was portrayed? And then the wall, and them, caved in.

You watch vids of Chinese building practices, their crumbling Ghost Cities, power blackouts and attendant industry cutbacks or closures, and you wonder if they are as powerful as presented.

I guess the Military-Industrial complex needs another reason for us to spend money on a new enemy since Afghanistan quit being the money pump.

16 posted on 10/23/2021 9:25:04 AM PDT by Oatka
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Red china is still decades behind us technology wise.

They are all bluster.


17 posted on 10/23/2021 11:29:06 AM PDT by 2CAVTrooper (One Nation, Under Fraud Completely Visible, With Spying and Lying Too All.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oatka

“I’m starting the get that old feeling again. Remember how “powerful” the USSR was portrayed? And then the wall, and them, caved in.”

Interesting observation. You’re right.


18 posted on 10/23/2021 2:11:34 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: chajin

The difference was that in the 1960s America was run by patriots and sane people who cared for America and its wellbeing.

Now its run by traitors and imbeciles who would sell out their own grandmothers for power and money. China will continue to grow stronger relative to the US, until this situation changes.


19 posted on 10/30/2021 10:01:18 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson