China displays new hypersonic missiles

When China held its Victory Day military parade in September, a new generation of hypersonic weapons was on public display, drawing widespread attention, reports CGTN.

Among them is the anti-ship missile formation, composed of the YJ 15 missile and the hypersonic YJ 19, YJ 17, and YJ 20. These four missile types can be deployed from multiple platforms, including ship-borne aircraft, surface vessels and submarines.

With long range, extreme speed and tremendous destructive power, they are regarded as cutting edge assets for striking hostile forces at sea.
Modern hypersonic weapons usually use wave rider designs or biconic-shaped bodies in their core aerodynamic configurations.

A wave rider is a type of aircraft shape with a streamlined, flat front end. When a wave rider flies faster than the speed of sound, it pushes the air in front of it into an invisible "wall," called a shock wave. The aircraft then uses this "wall" for lift. If one imagines the shock wave as the water surface, a hypersonic wave rider skimming along it resembles a stone skipping across a pond.

The biconic structure consists of two cone-shaped sections joined tip to base, resembling two stacked bullet heads. At speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, the air in front of the vehicle is compressed into a strong shock wave. By adjusting the angles between the two cones, engineers can manipulate the pressure difference across the shock wave to create lift, which allows the vehicle to glide like a rider on a streamlined board. The YJ 17 and the DF 17 missiles exemplify the wave rider configuration, with front ends shaped like a flattened triangle, while missiles like the YJ 20, YJ 21 and DF 26D adopt the biconic form, with a small cone followed by a larger one, Cao Weidong, a military expert, told China Media Group.

Each design serves different launch platforms and strike missions. With a diverse set of hypersonic missiles, China can address a wide range of targets, whether at sea or on land, stationary or mobile.

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