DF-17 Hypersonic Glide Vehicle: A Real Killer
The People’s Liberation Army on Oct. 1, 2019 revealed a new hypersonic missile that could pose a major threat to U.S. forces in the Pacific region.
The DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle, or HGV, made its public debut as part of the PLA’s sprawling, 15,000-person military parade in Beijing commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
While other countries also are working on hypersonic weapons — meaning powered or gliding precision-guided munitions that can travel faster than five times the speed of sound — the DF-17 apparently is the first or second hypersonic glide vehicle in the regular inventory of any military. Russia claimed it also would deploy an HGV in 2019.
The 16 DF-17s that featured in the parade all were atop what appeared to be DF-16 medium-range ballistic missiles. In actual use, the DF-16 would boost the DF-17 to Mach five or faster, at which point the DF-17 would separate from the booster and angle toward its target, maneuvering to correct its course or evade enemy defenses.
在国庆70周年阅兵式上，“东风”17导弹首次公开亮相。这款新型常规导弹具备全天候、无依托、强突防的特点，可对中近程目标实施精确打击，无论是导弹性能还是突防能力，都较其他型号常规导弹有了很大提升。“东风”17射程能够达到1800至2500公里。该导弹在设计上与此前的有些不同，“东风”17加装了超音速滑翔器，这意味着它在飞行速度上要远远超出此前的导弹，同时能够借助在高速飞行过程中产生的机动有效避开导弹防御系统的拦截。
同一般弹道导弹再入段无动力飞行不同，“东风”17弹头在再入段具备良好的机动能力和可操控性，因此呈现出一种非常诡异的飞行轨迹，就是著名的“钱学森”弹道，即利用飞行器升力实现在大气层中的“跳跃”式滑行，很多人形象地称这个过程为“打水漂”。这种导弹凭借着高机动性与超高的末端速度，使其很难被现有的反导系统所拦截，具有巨大的战略威慑价值。
在阅兵式结束后，就有美国军事专家分析称，中国“东风”17使用了高超声速滑翔技术，在再入大气层的前后进行滑翔变轨飞行，可以躲避美军的所有常规反导，世界上没有一个国家能够拦截。
With a range of potentially a thousand miles or more, the DF-17 could threaten U.S. forces and their allies across the Western Pacific. Nozomu Yoshitomi, a retired Japanese army general who now is a professor at Nihon University, told Reuters the DF-17 could render obsolete existing defenses. “There is a possibility that if we do not acquire a more sophisticated ballistic missile defense system, it will become impossible for both the United States and Japan to respond,” Yoshitomi said. “We don’t have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us,” Gen. John Hyten, then the… Read more »