The DF-ZF
is a Chinese
hypersonic glide vehicle
Hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is a type of warhead for ballistic missile that can maneuver and glide at hypersonic speed. It is used on ballistic missiles to significantly change their trajectories. Conventional ballistic missiles follow a predi ...
(HGV), previously denoted by
the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...
as WU-14 and currently officially operational on October 1st, 2019, in the
70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China
The 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China () was observed with a series of ceremonial events including a grand military parade as its spotlight to celebrate National Day of the People's Republic of China that too ...
. The DF-ZF is designed to be mounted on a
DF-17
The Dongfeng-17 (), is a Chinese solid-fuelled road-mobile medium-range ballistic missile that mounts the DF-ZF Hypersonic Glide Vehicle.
The DF-17 along with the DF-ZF, was officially unveiled at the National Day military parade on 1 October ...
, a type of ballistic missile specifically designed to carry HGVs.
Testing
The DF-ZF, designated by Pentagon as the WU-14, is a hypersonic missile delivery vehicle that has been flight-tested by China seven times, on 9 January, 7 August and 2 December 2014; 7 June and 27 November 2015;
in April 2016
and twice in November 2017. The system is operational as of 2019.
The
Chinese Defense Ministry confirmed its January 2014 test and said the test was "scientific" in nature, although it was widely viewed as part of a broader Chinese military build-up. All seven tests China performed so far were concluded successfully according to U.S. officials cited in ''
The Washington Free Beacon
''The Washington Free Beacon'' is an American conservative political journalism website launched in 2012.
The website is financially backed by Paul Singer, an American billionaire hedge fund manager and conservative activist.
History
The ...
''.
All the test launches were performed at the
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center
The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) also known as ''Base 25'' (), is a People's Republic of China space and defense launch facility (spaceport). It is situated in Kelan County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province and is the second of four laun ...
in
Shanxi Province
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level ...
, the main
long-range missile
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...
testing center for the
People's Liberation Army.
Capabilities and design
The DF-ZF is thought to reach speeds between Mach 5 () and Mach 10 ().
The glider could be used for
nuclear weapons delivery
Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods have been developed to carry out this task.
''Strategic'' nuclear weapons are used primari ...
but could also be used to perform precision-strike conventional missions (for example, next-generation
anti-ship ballistic missile
An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military ballistic missile system designed to hit a warship at sea.
Due to the often hypersonic flight speed of ballistic missiles an ASBM's kinetic energy alone may be sufficient to cripple or outri ...
s), which could penetrate "the layered air defenses of a U.S.
carrier strike group
A carrier strike group (CSG) is a type of carrier battle group of the United States Navy. It is an operational formation composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, usually an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least t ...
."
Hypersonic glider vehicles are less susceptible to
anti-ballistic missile countermeasures than conventional reentry vehicles (RVs).
Normal RVs descend through the atmosphere on a predictable ballistic trajectory—a hypersonic glider like the HGV can pull-up after reentering the atmosphere and approach its target in a relatively flat glide, lessening the time it can be detected, fired at, or reengaged if an initial attack fails. Gliding makes it more maneuverable and extends its range.
Although gliding creates more drag, it flies further than it would on a higher trajectory through space, and is too low to be intercepted by exo-atmospheric kill vehicles. The tradeoff is that warheads have less speed and altitude as they near the target, making them vulnerable to lower-tier interceptors, such as the Mach 17 Russian
53T6, ABM-3 ''Gazelle''. Other potential counter-hypersonic interception measures may involve
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...
or
railgun
A railgun or rail gun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high ...
technologies, but such technologies are not currently available.
A vehicle like the DF-ZF could be fitted to various Chinese ballistic missiles, such as the
DF-21 medium-range missile (extending range from ), and the
DF-31
The Dong Feng 31 (; NATO reporting name CSS-10) is a third-generation long-range, road-mobile, three stage, solid-fuel rocket intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the Dongfeng missile series developed by the People's Republic of Chi ...
intercontinental ballistic missiles (extending range from ). Analysts suspect that the DF-ZF will first be used in shorter-range roles as an
anti-ship missile
An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...
and for other tactical purposes to address the problem of hitting a moving target with a ballistic missile. Long-term goals may include deterrence of U.S. missile capabilities with the prospect of
strategic bombardment
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...
against the United States, or other countries.
Since conventional interceptor missiles have difficulty against maneuvering targets traveling faster than Mach 5 (the DF-ZF reenters the atmosphere at Mach 10), a problem exacerbated by decreased detection times, the United States may place more importance on developing
directed-energy weapon
A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include w ...
s as a countermeasure.
However, after decades of
research and development, directed-energy weapons are still very much at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-performance military weapons.
Complaints have been raised by one researcher over lack of access to
high-performance computing
High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems.
Overview
HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into a mult ...
power, required for development of the HGV. While China has a number of high performance supercomputers, access to them was not provided for the DF-ZF development project.
See also
*
Avangard – a Russian hypersonic warhead
*
Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2
Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) is an experimental hypersonic glide vehicle developed as part of the DARPA Falcon Project designed to fly in the Mach number, Mach 20 range. It is a test bed for technologies to provide the United States wit ...
and
Advanced Hypersonic Weapon
Prompt Global Strike (PGS) is a United States military effort to develop a system that can deliver a precision-guided conventional weapon airstrike anywhere in the world within one hour, in a similar manner to a nuclear ICBM. Such a weapon wou ...
– a similar US test vehicle and warhead
*
HGV-202F
The HGV-202F is an Indian hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) being designed, developed, and manufactured by an Indian Defence and Space company HTNP Industries.
Production
HGV-202F a hypersonic Boost-glide vehicle is being designed, developed, and ...
- an Indian Hypersonic glide vehicle
*
HYFLEX
HYFLEX (Hypersonic Flight Experiment) was a National Space Development Agency of Japan reentry demonstrator prototype which was launched in 1996 on the only flight of the J-I launcher. It was a successor of OREX and was a precursor for the Japan ...
– a Japanese Hypersonic Flight Experiment
*
Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle
The HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic speed flight. It is being developed as a carrier vehicle for hypersonic and long-range cruise missiles, and will have multiple civilian applications including the launching ...
– an Indian hypersonic vehicle under development
*
Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon
The Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) is a medium-range surface-to-surface boost-glide hypersonic missile planned for use by the United States Army. The United States Navy intends to procure a ship/submarine-launched variant of the missile as ...
*
DARPA Falcon Project
The DARPA Falcon Project (Force Application and Launch from Continental United States) is a two-part joint project between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the United States Air Force (USAF) and is part of Prompt Global ...
–
Prompt Global Strike
Prompt Global Strike (PGS) is a United States military effort to develop a system that can deliver a precision-guided conventional weapon airstrike anywhere in the world within one hour, in a similar manner to a nuclear ICBM. Such a weapon wou ...
*
Rockwell X-30
The Rockwell X-30 was an advanced technology demonstrator project for the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), part of a United States project to create a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spacecraft and passenger spaceliner. Started in 1986, it was canc ...
, 1990–1993 project for SSTO prototype
*
Boeing X-51 Waverider
The Boeing X-51 Waverider is an unmanned research scramjet experimental aircraft for hypersonic flight at and an altitude of . The aircraft was designated X-51 in 2005. It completed its first powered hypersonic flight on 26 May 2010. After t ...
*
Hypersonic Flight Experiment
Hypersonic Flight Experiment or HEX was the first test flight in the RLV Technology Demonstration Programme of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The demonstration trials will pave the way for a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) fully re-usab ...
*
IXV
*
Shaurya (missile)
Shaurya (IAST: shāurya, meaning 'Bravery') is a canister-launched hypersonic surface-to-surface tactical missile developed by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for use by the Indian Armed Forces. It has a range of ...
*
Kh-47M2 Kinzhal
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (in Russian: Х-47М2 Кинжал, "Dagger", NATO reporting name Killjoy) is a Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-surface missile. It has a claimed range of more than , Mach 12 speed (2.5 mi/s), and ...
References
2010s Chinese experimental aircraft
Chinese experimental aircraft
Cruise missiles of the People's Republic of China
Hypersonic aircraft
Unmanned experimental aircraft
Military equipment introduced in the 2010s
{{Chinese_Missiles