China’s hypersonic glide vehicle test

China’s hypersonic glide vehicle test

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – A report in the London-based Financial Times on Saturday, citing various sources, says China in August tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle that circled the globe before speeding towards its target.

Concept –

• Hypersonic speeds are 5 or more times the speed of sound.
• Chinese military launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle, which flew through low-orbit space before cruising down towards its target. The test has caught US intelligence by surprise, the report says.
• China had made astounding progress on hypersonic weapons and was far more advanced than US.
• The weapon was being developed by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), under the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation that makes missile systems and rockets for China’s space programme.
• The vehicle was launched on a Long March rocket, which is used for the space programme.

Significance –

• According to the report, the weapon could, in theory, fly over the South Pole. That would pose a big challenge for the US military because its missile defence systems are focused on the northern polar route.
• The US, Russia and China are all developing hypersonic weapons, including glide vehicles that are launched into space on a rocket but orbit the earth under their own momentum.

India –

• Hypersonic technology has been developed and tested by both DRDO and ISRO.
  • Last September, DRDO successfully flight-tested the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), with a capability to travel at 6 times the speed of sound.
  • A solid rocket motor of Agni missile took it to an altitude of 30 km where the cruise vehicle separated as planned.
  • The hypersonic combustion sustained and the cruise vehicle continued on its desired flight path at a velocity of six times the speed of sound for more than 20 seconds.
• Last December, an advanced Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT) test facility of the DRDO was inaugurated in Hyderabad. It is a pressure vacuum-driven, enclosed free jet facility that simulates Mach 5 to 12.
• Most of the hypersonic vehicles primarily use the scramjet technology.
• Scramjets are aa category of engines designed to handle airflows of speeds in multiples of the speed of sound.