China’s secret hypersonic missile, so fast that it would only leave a reaction time of 3 seconds to the B-21 Raider

China has confirmed the development, so far secret, of a new and advanced Air-Aire Hypersonic missile that could alter the dynamics of aerial superiority between nations, especially Against aircraft as advanced as the American furtive bomber B-21 Raider. According to South China Morning Post, the missile He has completed heat resistance tests at the Mission Mission wind tunnel facilitieswhich constitutes the first confirmation of the existence of this missile.

The tests were carried out under conditions similar to those generated by friction during a flight hypersonicwith the missile facing the rigorous performance requirements established by the Air Force of the Popular Liberation Army. The details were published in an article reviewed by peers in Equipment Environmental Engineering, written in Chinese.

Mars mission is a Arc heated wind tunnelcapable of generating extreme temperatures. To date, it is known that China has developed Mach 5 hypersonic missilesmainly designed for Impact terrestrial or sea objectives. However, this new Aire-Aire missile represents an advance in Chinese technology and could become a real threat to high-speed fighters or aircraft with a poaching of China’s adversaries.

‘When heating the gas with an electric arc, (this type of tunnel) can generate hot air flows that reach thousands or tens of thousands of degrees Celsius‘They wrote Cheng Gong and Huang Yiminof the China Airborne Missile Academy (Bed, for its acronym in English), in the article. Bed is the main developer and supplier of Air-Aire missiles for the Chinese Air Force.

According to SCMP, the tunnel can continually operate for an hour or more, although its energy consumption is huge, which makes it very expensive for prolonged use. Therefore, The tunnel is mainly used to evaluate space missions such as the simulation of probes landings on planets such as Mars. This tunnel is located in LuoyangProvince of Henanand is operated by the China Aviation Industry Corporation.

The research team has not revealed the exact nature of the proven missile, but yes that survived at temperatures above 1,200 ° C. The article also indicates that these extreme temperatures are experienced throughout the body of the missilenot only by the tip of the cone of his nose.

These temperatures indicate that, probably, the missile is Designed to fly at Mach 9 or superior speeds. That is, at 11,113 km/h. At such an extreme speed, spin generates enormous aerial friction, which requires that the electronics of the weapon be well protected against extreme temperatures.

‘Extreme thermal environments They can induce thermal tensions and deformations in the missile structurewhich will affect its aerodynamic characteristics and, in addition, will impact the stability of its flight and attitude trajectory, ‘explained Cheng and Huang.

If reports on the air-Aire hypersonic missile are precise, this would be bad news for US army aircraft such as bomber B-21. Currently, most are equipped With missile alert systems capable of detecting incoming threats from up to 10 km away. This would leave B-21 with 3.24 seconds to react After detection, a time too short for evasive maneuvers or display of countermeasures.

The strategic implications of this technology are great. Air Forces must Adapt your defense strategies Before such an advanced missile technology and countries like the United States will have to Develop countermeasures capable of defeating or mitigating the effects of hypersonic missiles. This could involve the development of better detection systems, faster and more advanced electronic war interception capabilities to face these high speed threats.