China is expanding its effort to launch weapons with hypersonic missiles

The state-controlled AVIC Aerodynamics Research Institute said it is ready to open a new wind tunnel capable of mimicking the speeds and high temperatures encountered by hypersonic missiles. The new wind tunnel’s roles include testing the “isolation and release” of weapons from hypersonic vehicles, the institute said in a news release Sunday.

A hypersonic glide vehicle is a maneuverable warhead that sits on the tip of a long-range missile and, once released, glides onto its target on an unpredictable path that makes interception difficult. In a test in July, US officials said, China fired a missile that traveled around the world in low-Earth orbit before leaving the glide vehicle. That glide vehicle then separately fired a projectile, he said—a feat that pushes the limits of physics.

No other country has demonstrated the capability to launch projectiles from hypersonic glide vehicles. Doing so is a difficult technical challenge, missile experts said, because the launch occurs when the vehicle is traveling at about five times the speed of sound, meaning the projectile is immediately subjected to very high pressure and heat.

The exact role of the second projectile is not known. They can be even more difficult to defend against missiles that can be fired from glide vehicles in flight. Possibilities include firing a decoy to confuse missile defenses or launching a missile to destroy a secondary target.

“Unless the data is made public, it is pretty opaque,” said Melissa Hunham, an expert in missile technology at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey.

The new wind tunnel is twice as wide as the institute’s first such facility and can simulate conditions at up to eight times the speed of sound, it said. The institute said the tunnel has been under construction for two years and has recently passed tests to ensure that it is ready for use.

The tunnel will “promote China’s research and development of hypersonic weapons and equipment,” it said. The institute and China’s defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Another institution, the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center, also conducts research into hypersonic weapons.

US military officials acknowledge that America’s hypersonic weapons-development program lags behind China. During the past five years, the US has conducted nine hypersonic tests, while China has launched hundreds, according to Air Force General John Hyten, who was until recently vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

China already has hundreds of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that travel high in space and deflect faster than hypersonic glide vehicles. These include missiles that can launch more than a dozen warheads at various targets, potentially taking a toll on US security. Military analysts say Beijing appears to be aiming to develop new weapons and delivery methods to ensure it retains an advantage.

“I think China is concerned about the future of American missile defense,” said Tong Zhao, a Beijing-based nuclear-weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including a potential space-based interceptor.

According to US officials, China conducted another hypersonic missile test in August. Analysts say one of the goals of the summer tests may be to develop the capability to threaten the US from the South, which avoids the majority of US missile defense deployed to counter attacks from missiles fired at the North Pole.

China’s race to launch missiles from hypersonic glide vehicles could put pressure on the US to further ramp up missile defenses. The Biden administration is due to release an update to US missile defense policy early next year, along with a new national defense policy.

On Friday, the Pentagon said the Missile Defense Agency has awarded contracts to Raytheon Technologies Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop prototypes of systems to destroy hypersonic glide vehicles during their descent.

Military leaders in the Asia-Pacific region say adding new missile defenses is among their top priorities.