Weapons

Chinese Hypersonic Vehicle Could Be Model for a Future Weapon System

Images on Chinese social media appear to show a hypersonic test vehicle that is a likely prototype for a weapon system. The Jia Geng No. 1 rocket, allegedly built for hypersonic research, appears very similar to an American concept for a hypersonic cruise missile.

The images, which recently surfaced in Chinese language media, show the Jia Geng No. 1 rocket, a collaboration between Xiamen University Aerospace Academy and Beijing Lingkong Tianxing Technology Co., Ltd. The images show a rocket 8.7 meters (28.5 feet) long by 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) wide, with the latter number likely including the vehicle’s fins. The rocket weighs 3700 kilograms, or 8,157 pounds.

The rocket features an air intake in the front and exhaust port in the rear, and has the typical appearance of a ramjet, or scramjet, vehicle. Ramjets produce thrust by gulping air at subsonic speeds and mixing oxygen with burning fuel. The hot gasses created by this process are then pushed out through the exhaust port, producing thrust. This makes for a very fast engine, easily propelling vehicles into the Mach 3+ realm.

Unfortunately there’s a natural limit to ramjet propulsion: Shockwaves produced at the air inlet increase the faster the ramjet vehicle goes, to the point where beyond Mach 5 the ramjet no longer produces net thrust. The solution: supersonic combustion ramjets, or scramjets, which intake air at supersonic speeds, resulting in much higher Mach numbers. Scramjets can theoretically reach a maximum speed of up to Mach 15.