China's Hypersonic Glide Vehicle: A Threat to the United States: Beijing's significant military advance has been furthered with its venture into hypersonic weapons systems. China is working on hypersonic cruise missiles for which it is working on scramjet engines and also on Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV).
In 2014, Beijing has conducted three test-firings of its HGV, the Wu-14. The first test-firing was conducted in January, while the second one was conducted in August and the latest one has been conducted in December and witnessed both success and failure with the tests.
According to the United States, this Wu-14 is believed to be a component of Beijing's strategic nuclear program1 and the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission annual report stated that the Wu-14 was a "core component of its next-generation strike capability."2
This "game changer"3 Wu-14 is designed to be mounted atop ballistic missiles to "an undisclosed suborbital altitude and then released." The vehicle then dives towards its target at speeds of up to Mach 10.
There is little doubt that this 'assassin-mace weapon' is another category of counter-measure being developed by Beijing to evade the US missile defence systems.4 The dragons have time and again raised their apprehensions on the US missile defence program and oppose the same on the grounds that it negates Beijing's nuclear deterrent capability. Beijing has been developing counter-measures like decoys and chaffs on their ballistic missiles.
