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| China's Aircraft Carrier Now Can Launch Super-Deadly Hypersonic Nuclear Missiles |
Beijing - China is one of the countries that is strengthened by various deadly weapons such as hypersonic nuclear missiles. The existence of hypersonic nuclear missiles will clearly increase China's combat power. Currently the Chinese military is claimed to be the largest and strongest fighting force in Asia.
China's independence in developing various defense equipment is certainly a plus in itself. Evidence of the magnitude of China's combat power, China is equipped with aircraft carriers. Not just any aircraft carrier, this aircraft carrier owned by China also has many capabilities. Thus supporting the strengthening of the Chinese military. Moreover, China is also reinforced with the J-20 stealth fighter jet.
China is one of the countries that has succeeded in developing stealth fighter jets locally. The existence of China's J-20 shows that China does have extraordinary military capabilities. The South China Morning Post reported this week that the hypersonic weapon is carrier-based.
No kidding, China's hypersonic missiles can be used against air, surface and satellite targets. Even said to be able to reach ten times the speed of sound with a range of 1,000 kilometers. The weapon expands the attack range of China's carrier fleet. The combat range that Chinese carriers can achieve is more than 2,500 kilometers, roughly as far east of Taiwan to Guam. Of course this increases the threat of Chinese ultra-fast missile attacks on strategic but increasingly vulnerable US outposts in the Pacific.
Xiao Jun, principal investigator at the China Academy of Airborne Missiles, and his team pointed out in a South China Morning Post article that hypersonic weapons are more difficult to repair at sea than conventional missiles.
They note that critical areas of hypersonic weapons are protected using high-tech materials that protect against extreme flight temperatures but also allow communication signals to pass through.
However, the research team noted that this material is susceptible to damage during transportation, storage, or installation on aircraft. In addition, the Chinese research team showed that when the damaged part is exposed to marine moisture, salt, and mildew, moisture absorption, expansion, deformation, blistering, debonding, or peeling can affect the heat-resistant coating.
Past solutions required a clean ground-based room and an experienced crew with state-of-the-art equipment to ensure that there were no defects in the surface finish.
To solve the problem, the research team developed a new sealing material that requires only one worker to remove the damaged parts, fill gaps with sealing gel and smooth the finished surface with a scraper.
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Airborne Missiles said that during field tests in poor conditions aboard the carrier. It is claimed this new method reduces service time to a tenth of the previous approach. They say their new technology increases the storage life of hypersonic weapons, which the Chinese military needs to last at least a decade.
The researchers claim that their new technology also allows for convenient field maintenance and periodic upgrades, as technicians inspect weapons and sometimes open them to upgrade critical components such as infrared sensors.
Additionally, they noted in the South China Morning Post report that body heat repair and sealing would need to withstand the extreme conditions of hypersonic flight and adverse conditions at sea for more than ten years while allowing for ease of maintenance under rough conditions.
Sealant technology will probably allow China to deploy hypersonic weapons over a wider range of its surface combatants, giving them a potential advantage over their rival, the US, in surface warfare operations.
This April, Asia Times reported that China had tested the YJ-12 hypersonic weapon from one of its Type 055 cruisers, making the class one of the world's heaviest armed warships. Video footage of the test shows a cold-launched anti-ship ballistic missile armed with a hypersonic glide vehicle, with a small control surface indicating it is not a surface-to-air missile.
The YJ-12 outwardly resembles China's CM-401 high-altitude anti-ship missile. Where is based on the Russian Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile. However, while China has successfully tested the ship-based YJ-12, an air-launched version is also in the works.