This article seems appropriate to this thread regarding this recent test.http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-secretly-conducts-second-flight-test-of-new-ultra-high-speed-missile/Be interested to hear whether people agree with its analysis or not as it would be nice too hear a second opinion on the matter.
Quote from: Star One on 08/20/2014 07:50 pmThis article seems appropriate to this thread regarding this recent test.http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-secretly-conducts-second-flight-test-of-new-ultra-high-speed-missile/Be interested to hear whether people agree with its analysis or not as it would be nice too hear a second opinion on the matter.Seasoned Chinese blogger kktt also believes this was the second test flight of WU-14 reentry glide vehicle due to the similarity of the NOTAM with that for the January 9, 2014 eventhttp://liuqiankktt.blog.163.com/blog/static/12126421120147113174826/
Also see this story:http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1578756/chinas-second-test-nuclear-armed-hypersonic-glider-failsI think an interesting question is what rocket they're using for this. I would not be surprised to find that it was a variant of an existing mobile ballistic missile, perhaps even the DF-21.
I'm not sure if it uses solid or liquid. I know the US version (DARPA's HTV) uses a Minotaur IV as the booster (which is in turn based on the Minuteman ICBM) and I just assumed that China would using something similar considering the very similar flight profile.Given that the hypersonic technology is "DARPA hard", I'm really skeptical about this being any sort of commercial activity. I haven't seen anything like this from any of the US commercial spacelaunch companies, so it's really hard to imagine it coming from a Chinese company.Most likely the US assessment is based off the flight profile. It would be pretty easy for them to track the rocket launch and then the hypersonic glide using IR sensors. And that is a very unique profile that sets it apart from space launches as well as ballistic missile tests.
I wasn't saying commercial, but civil government space, with the glide portion representing a space shuttle reentry - not clear to me that is set apart from the weapon profile.
And DF-21 is solid, AFAIK the only liquid large vehicles in use are the Long March series.
Right - I mentioned the DF-21 because I assumed the Chinese would be using a solid booster for this application like the US is with the Minotaur. Was there a reference to them using a liquid booster somewhere that I missed?
A1445/14- THE FLW SEGMENTS OF ATS RTE CLSD: 1.Y3: TUSLI-DUMIN. 2.W112: ADMUX-TUSLI. 3.L888:TONAX-LEBAK. 4.Y1:MAGOD-N3507.6E10005.6. FL000 - FL999, 23 AUG 02:00 2014 UNTIL 23 AUG 03:00 2014. CREATED: 22 AUG 14:06 2014
This article makes it quite clear that the attempted hypersonic launch was military in nature.http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20140822/192253295/Chinas-Hypersonic-Aircraft-Fails-Second-Test-Launch.html
A really good open source analysis of this launch (and what a spectacular failure it was) was just posted here: http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/7443/crashing-glider-hidden-hotspring