Chinese military has developed hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) capable of launching air-to-air missiles. This achievement may pose a threat to high-priority targets, including command and control aircraft, thousands of miles away.
According to a person directly familiar with the matter, this breakthrough is part of China’s broader efforts to use its missile arsenal — the largest in the world, with over 3,150 ballistic missiles — for almost any military task. Meanwhile, the United States faces difficulties in supplying critically important air defense missiles and long-range strike weapons after six months of war with Iran.
A source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the information, reported that China has also added air-to-air capabilities to some hypersonic cruise missiles and built anti-ship capabilities into several types of missiles. Such weapons would pose a serious threat to U.S. air operations during a potential conflict with China. Auxiliary aircraft, such as refueling aircraft, radar detection and control aircraft, and flying command posts, such as the E-4B Nightwatch, are designed to operate far from the combat zone.
Capabilities of Chinese hypersonic weapons
A hypersonic glider launched from a DF-17 missile can cover a distance of about 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) — slightly less than the distance from China to the American territory of Guam, where a large military facility is located. The DF-27 missile has a maximum range of about 5,000 miles, allowing it to reach Hawaii.
Hypersonic gliders are combat units that can maneuver in the atmosphere on their way to a target, increasing range and making interception more difficult. Currently, no other country is known to have weapons that combine HGV with air-to-air missiles. This year’s report from the China Aerospace Studies Institute at the U.S. Air Force noted, without providing details, that China’s missile modernization efforts are increasingly prioritizing the ability to inflict coordinated damage at the system level across the opponent’s operational structure.
Using a ballistic missile to attack a distant aircraft is expensive, complex, and risky. The flight time of a ballistic missile — 20 minutes or more at maximum range — means that guidance information must be extremely precise. This long ‘kill chain,’ which involves transmitting information from remote sensors to the missile, makes such operations more vulnerable to disruption. Ballistic missiles can also be confused with a nuclear attack. This so-called ‘discrimination problem’ between conventional and nuclear attacks complicates the use of such weapons, especially during a full-scale war, when their use could inadvertently provoke a nuclear response.
Missile potential buildup and competition
China appears to have increased missile production last year more than at any time since Xi Jinping became president in 2013, Bloomberg reported in May, detailing the sector’s finances for the first time. China’s long-range air-to-air missile PL-15 was used in combat last year when India and Pakistan had a brief conflict. Pakistan claimed to have used this weapon to shoot down several Indian aircraft.
The Pentagon estimates that as of 2024, China had at least 3,150 ballistic missiles and 300 ground-based cruise missiles. These figures reflect an increase of 147% and 50%, respectively, compared to 2015, when the U.S. began disclosing such estimates.
Long-range air-to-air weapons are considered key to any future conflict. The U.S. has developed the AIM-174B missile based on the SM-6 air defense missile manufactured by RTX Corp.; its exact range is classified, but the ground-based SM-6 has a range of 250 miles or more. On Saturday, the U.S. Navy announced it is testing the AIM-424 Malice air-to-air missile from Raytheon Co., a subsidiary of RTX. According to them, its range exceeds 300 miles. The Lockheed Martin Corp. AIM-260 missile, which is in production but not yet in service, is also expected to have an extremely long range. The Meteor missile manufactured by MBDA, widely used in Europe, is equipped with a ramjet engine and can hit targets at a distance of over 100 miles.
Source: Bloomberg
