Chinese test of Fractional Orbital Bombardment System

so your telling me they had over 2 years to perfect it? this isnt gonna be good.....
 
The FT piece is paywalled so here's the Bloomberg piece talking about the FT one...


 
Researchers in southwest China say they have developed the world’s most advanced system for testing an aircraft’s ability to unload a weapon or small spacecraft at extremely fast speeds, allowing them to test a prototype hypersonic bomber.
 
People’s Liberation Army researchers say China’s aircraft carriers will be able to use hypersonic weapons thanks to a breakthrough in logistics technology that simplifies and speeds up repair and maintenance of the weapons. Xiao and his colleagues said their innovation for the quick repair and service of hypersonic weapons had passed stringent field tests conducted by the military in an aircraft carrier environment and other challenging combat settings.

These weapons are designed to be launched from aircraft, not a carrier. They can go after a wide range of high-value targets in the air or on the surface and can be used as anti-satellite weapon, They could increase the combat range of China’s carrier fleet to more than 2,500km – about the distance from the east of Taiwan to Guam – with ultra-fast air strikes that could penetrate most air defence systems
 
Challenges and Thinking for Sensor Resources Scheduling Based on Space-Sea-Ground Integration in NSHV Defense
Near Space Hypersonic Vehicle (NSHV) refers to the ability to fly in near space at an altitude of 20~100 km, with a cruise flight Mach number of 5~25, and is used to perform global fast and precise strikes, long-range delivery, surveillance and reconnaissance. A class of aircraft for strategic combat missions. This kind of aircraft not only has the characteristics of ultra-long-range attack and small Radar Cross-Section (RCS) similar to ballistic missiles, but also has the ability of lateral large-span maneuvering that ballistic missiles do not have.

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A team of Chinese aerospace engineers say they have overcome a major barrier in protecting the country from a potential hypersonic weapon attack. The achievement came in the development of a reusable air defence system, which is based on an unmanned aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine that can fly at more than five times the speed of sound over a long distance, the scientists said.
By using early warning satellites and ground radar stations, the aircraft can predict the trajectory of an incoming hypersonic missile, and then launch a small kinetic energy weapon to neutralise the threat in mid-flight.
 
A team of Chinese aerospace engineers say they have overcome a major barrier in protecting the country from a potential hypersonic weapon attack. The achievement came in the development of a reusable air defence system, which is based on an unmanned aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine that can fly at more than five times the speed of sound over a long distance, the scientists said.
By using early warning satellites and ground radar stations, the aircraft can predict the trajectory of an incoming hypersonic missile, and then launch a small kinetic energy weapon to neutralise the threat in mid-flight.
I.e. hypersonic unmanned interceptor plane.
 
A team of Chinese aerospace engineers say they have overcome a major barrier in protecting the country from a potential hypersonic weapon attack. The achievement came in the development of a reusable air defence system, which is based on an unmanned aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine that can fly at more than five times the speed of sound over a long distance, the scientists said.
By using early warning satellites and ground radar stations, the aircraft can predict the trajectory of an incoming hypersonic missile, and then launch a small kinetic energy weapon to neutralise the threat in mid-flight.

This is the end of result of all of those technology transfers over the last few decades.
 
Just want to ask a few questions.
- So, China kind of hanged one or many HGVs to a FOBS - and launched the whole thing on an ICBM ? Am I right ?
- CONOPS would be: fire the ICBM, orbit the FOBS for global range, and then drop HGV (that is, unpowered reentry "gliders") on a target ?
- so in a sense, the Chinese brought together, a big R-36 like ICBM, with FOBS but a major difference. Old FOBS had classic ICBM reentry vehicles. That one tentative nuclear warheads would be on hypersonic gliders - Dynasoar / PRIME / ASSET style, except smaller and of course unmanned ?

Impressive. I can see why the Chine brought back FOBS from the technical graveyard where the Soviets had buried it in 1983. HGV is a possible solution to FOBS main issues
- fixed orbits, so needs manoeuverable warheads as only reentry allows to tweak the trajectory and inclination (DYNAmic SOARing, is that thou ?)
- fixed orbit, manoeuvering target compensate for very low CEP compared to suborbital ICBMs
- getting around ABM system: back in the day it was FOBS vss BMEWS / SAFEGUARD / DEFENDER / Spartan & Sprint. The Soviet FOBS was to catch US defenses by surprise, coming from the South Pole rather than the North pole. But fact was, radars made it obsolete from day one.
- I suppose that HGVs reentry manoeuvering would drive the radars & ABM system crazy, so - back to the old Soviet CONOPs about coming from the South pole ? except this time manoeuvering like a goddamn DynaSoar ?

Can't help thinking, this is akin to a) a Titan II + ASSET + Polaris-warhead or b) a R-36-FOBS+BOR-1/2/3+warhead.

I mean, was such system ever reviewed during Cold War ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-25C_Titan_II
 
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China has established a near-space command equipped with a professional hypersonic weapons force that reports directly to the highest level of the military, according to a recently published paper. The new force joins the People’s Liberation Army’s army, air force, navy and rocket branches. The command would be equipped to carry out “merciless” attacks on critical targets, as well as high-altitude surveillance around the globe through automated drones and spy balloons.
 

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