BEIJING – The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force has conducted twoflight tests of a new ballistic missile attached to a hypersonic glidevehicle (HGV), US officials confirmed in a recent intelligence assessment.
The two DF-17 ballistic missile tests occurred November 1 and November 15,respectively, a US official briefed on the intelligence assessment told theDiplomat on December 28. The November 1 test was the first ballisticmissile test since the Communist Party of China’s 19th Congress in October,the report notes.
The November 1 test comprised “the first HGV test in the world using asystem intended to be fielded operationally,” the US official told the newsoutlet.
The US and Russia have been hard at work on honing hypersonic glidetechnology, but neither country is known to have conducted HGV tests for asystem intended to become operational.
The HGV used in the November 1 test was designed specifically for theDF-17, a medium-range ballistic missile, according to the Diplomat. Themissile landed “within meters” of its intended target and is expectedto become fully operational in 2020, according to the US intelligenceassessment.
The primary appeal of HGVs is that they are thought to be less vulnerableto missile defense systems. Given the high speeds at which the vehicles cantransport payloads, missile interceptors do not have as much timeto neutralize the projectile before the payload reaches its target, theDaily Beast reports.[image: China’s DF-41 ICBM]
“The combination of high speed, maneuverability, and relatively lowaltitudes makes [HGVs] challenging targets for missile defense systems,” aNational Air and Space Intelligence Center report released in June stated.HGVs fly faster than Mach 5 “and spend most of their flight at much loweraltitudes than a typical ballistic missile,” the June report says.
“Although hypersonic glide vehicles and missiles flying non-ballistictrajectories were first proposed as far back as World War II, technologicaladvances are only now making these systems practicable,” James Syring,director of the US Missile Defense Agency, told the House Armed ServicesCommittee in June.