China’s reusable hypersonic interceptor: a paper plane

China’s aerospace engineers have used science developed by an American hypersonics scientist and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project to solve a problem with a proposed hypersonic speed launch vehicle to intercept hypersonic missiles.

This Reusable Hypersonic Interceptor claims it can fire and return. Is it a paper airplane or an airborne lethal system? The threat of another Chinese adventurism worries the United States as the world moves into the third Nuclear Age.

The system is an air-breathing motor-powered drone that can fly at more than five times the speed of sound over long distances and launches a “kinetic energy weapon” to kill the oncoming hypersonic missile. The hypothetical concept is based on a paper by a team led by Yin Zhongjie of the Shanghai Institute of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. It was published in the specialized magazine Aerospace Technology on January 1, according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The institute is also said to develop drones and electronics for the Chinese military.

Inadequate flight control algorithm

“By using early warning satellites and ground radar stations, the aircraft can predict the trajectory of a missile hypersonic incoming and then launch a small kinetic energy weapon to neutralize the threat mid-air. Once the attack is over, the aircraft can return and prepare for its next mission,” notes SCMP. But the design ran into a “sophisticated math problem” late in the system design. Current interception algorithms halfway they have been developed for conventional rocket-engine-powered missiles and not for a hypersonic air-breathing aircraft.Using those equations could cause you to lose control or even crash.

Another mathematical problem is to develop an algorithm that can accurately predict the course of a hypersonic threat, which travels at high speed and performs complex maneuvers. Such a code requires very complex calculations that are beyond the capacity of the on-board computer.

Mathematical solution used by American hypersonic scientists and NASA

The team therefore developed a new algorithm using a mathematical solution developed by then-MIT student David Benson. SCMP adds that Benson, according to his LinkedIn profile, is now one of the top scientists at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. Hypersonic technology is one of the main research areas of the institute.

The team used Benson’s 2004 PhD thesis, which proposed a mathematical solution known as Gaussian pseudospectral transcription, which could greatly simplify complex launch vehicle flight control systems.

Yin’s team also used an algorithm developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its X-33 hypersonic aircraft. Although nearing completion, the X-33 project never flew and was canceled in 2001 due to technical difficulties.

The system is an air-breathing engine-powered drone that can fly at more than five times the speed of sound over long distances and launches a “kinetic energy weapon” to take down the oncoming hypersonic missile.

Computer simulations now showed that the new algorithm had considerably simplified the calculation process for the flight computers. Although the new algorithm plotted a longer flight path, it was able to steer the aircraft as far as 6.8 kilometers from the target, well below the lethal zone of a kinetic weapon the aircraft could deploy.

Impressive, but only theoretical: the experts

A former Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot, with a degree in aeronautical engineering and now working on software, admitted that the research seemed important and revolutionary, but pointed to the lack of a real model of the platform.

“It’s purely theoretical and computer simulated, without even a technology demonstrator that can validate some of the concepts. It also doesn’t mention cost, as hypersonic missiles are expensive and China already has offensive hypersonic platforms, possibly having spent a fortune developing them.” “It is hard to believe that they would also spend huge sums on the development of a hypersonic interception platform. It makes very little sense from a cost-benefit point of view,” the pilot told EurAsian Times.

The pilot’s opinion stems from the belief of a section of strategists that hypersonic missiles are becoming, in a way, the new nuclear weapons, more for deterrence than actual use. However, the current war in Ukraine has shown the opposite. Russia claimed to have used its air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile three times against Ukrainian targets, its Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on August 21 last year. The claim seems true, as Western military and scientific observers would have instantly disproved it.

There are no details about the “kinetic energy weapon” that the reusable hypersonic launch vehicle is intended to fire on the incoming hypersonic missile. “The usual development of air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles requires ‘crash’ and ‘launch’ tests from the launch pylons of an aircraft. Imagine how many tests will have to be carried out on the hypersonic missile to release another weapon. It will take a long time. develop it,” added the former Air Force pilot.

A Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) scientist who had worked at its Radar and Electronics Development Establishment (LRDE) believes the new algorithm could be used to create a new generation of flight control computers, sensors and guidance systems.

“Mathematics, software, electronics, and electrical and avionics engineering are directly related. Any advance in any field will affect the others. It depends on whether Chinese scientists and their military decide to take research in that direction,” said the scientist.

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The report therefore celebrates what appears to be a largely theoretical achievement, possibly conceived as a broader public relations campaign to boost the country’s image as a rising tech powerhouse.

Does China specialize in hypersonic missile communications?

China’s last credible technological breakthrough in hypersonic technology came in January 2022, when the Space Physics Science and Technology Laboratory claimed to have found a way to maintain a Constant comunication with a hypersonic missile.

Artificial objects suffer communications outages when the extremely high surface temperature, generated due to friction with the Earth’s atmosphere during reentry, generates “plasma shields.” Ionized gas forms on the surface of a hypersonic weapon, jamming the signals. Since ground-based radars cannot identify and lock on to a hypersonic target behind a plasma shelter, the problem is called a “black barrier.” Tianjin University’s School of Precision Instruments and Optoelectronic Engineering invented a laser system capable of emitting a continuous beam of electromagnetic waves in the terahertz spectrum, needed for the upcoming 6G communications technology. This was preceded by the 6G technology breakthrough in January 2022, where researchers achieved a record transmission speed of 206.25 gigabits per second.

Other investigation on blocking communications with hypersonic missiles he proposed a large high-frequency communications network made up of satellite-orbiting ground stations and ships.

China’s last credible technological breakthrough in hypersonic technology came in January 2022, when the Space Physics Science and Technology Laboratory claimed to have found a way to maintain a Constant comunication with a hypersonic missile.

However, the four developments respond to a coherent scientific impulse in general and towards hypersonic communications in particular. Although fraught with drawbacks, these individual scientific achievements often amount to enormous technological progress.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of India or Defense Research and Studies.

Article courtesy of: The Eurasian Times

Article republished within the framework of an agreement with Dras (Defense Research and studies) to share content. Link to the original article:https://dras.in/chinas-reusable-hypersonic-interceptor-a-paper-plane/

Mumbai-based journalist who has covered the defense industry in India for over a decade. He is a researcher and covers the intersection of military affairs with foreign policy, politics, economics, and technology. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Eurasian Times.