Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
Text taken from the Telegram page of @china3army
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] According to Bloomberg, China has developed a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) capable of delivering air-to-air missiles to targets thousands of kilometers away. If the system is fully developed, it will threaten not only American fighters but also the most valuable aircraft—the E-3/E-7 AWACS aircraft, the E-6B/E-4B airborne command posts, and the KC-46 and KC-135 tanker aircraft, without which large-scale air operations are impossible.
Currently, the maximum range of the Chinese Jian-16 and PL-17 missile combination is estimated at 1,400 km. The new project is expected to significantly expand this range. The Dongfeng-17 missile with HGV is being considered as a launch vehicle, and the longer-range Dongfeng-27 is expected to be considered in the future.
This isn't about directly hitting a target with a ballistic missile, but rather delivering a specialized air-to-air missile to a designated area, which would intercept the aircraft on its final leg. However, the missile itself is only part of the system. To hit an aerial target at such a distance, its flight must be continuously tracked. To this end, China is actively building a unified reconnaissance and targeting network, integrating satellites, over-the-horizon radar stations, and communications, command, and control systems.
Beijing already has more than 500 reconnaissance satellites capable of supporting long-range "kill chains." The primary objective of such weapons is not to destroy individual aircraft, but to push American air support as far away from the combat zone as possible. If tankers and AWACS aircraft are forced to retreat hundreds of kilometers, US fighters will reduce patrol time, reducing the combat radius and the effectiveness of the entire air operation. It's telling that the United States is following a similar path. The US Air Force is developing a long-range AFLRW missile program with a calculated range of over 1,850 km, and the Navy has already unveiled the AIM-424 MALICE missile with a stated range of 463 km
I hope we are also developing weapons of this class.
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