Leaked Pentagon documents show that China has moved its advanced hypersonic jets to an air base in eastern China, in what is seen as another sign of Beijing’s readiness to launch an attack on Taiwan.
One of the documents he analyzed Washington Postincluding satellite imagery from August 9.
The photos showed two WZ-8 rocket-propelled reconnaissance drones at an air base in eastern China, 350 miles from Shanghai.
The August maneuvers from WZ-8 were noted in a classified National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency document.
They show that the Chinese military is making technical advances that could help it target US warships around Taiwan and military bases in the region.
Xi Jinping, President of China, on April 6
It also shows how advanced Chinese military equipment is.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency report says that China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has ‘almost certainly’ set up its first unmanned aerial unit at the base.
The base is under Eastern Theater Command, the branch of the Chinese military responsible for enforcing Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over Taiwan.
The disclosure comes as Congress is set to present a series of scenarios about possible attacks on Taiwan.
On Wednesday, China’s House of Representatives selection committee will participate in a war game scenario simulating a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, run by the Center for a New American Security.
The session is planned to give lawmakers an idea of how the conflict in Taiwan may evolve, where US military vulnerabilities might lie, and the consequences for international trade and US businesses, Axios mentioned.
The WZ-8 was officially unveiled in December 2019, at the parade for the 70th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Flying at high altitudes, the drone travels at least three times the speed of sound.
Several other documents allegedly leaked by Jacques Teixeira, who was arrested last week, show the presence of additional spy balloons, and an assessment that Taiwan is not willing to withstand aerial bombardment from China during an invasion.
The Ministry of Defense did not comment on the drone document.
The leaked files also include a deeply disturbing report about China’s hypersonic missile program, and a new missile believed to be able to evade US defenses has been successfully tested.
Teixeira, 21, was arrested Thursday at his Massachusetts home. He is believed to have shared hundreds of classified documents with friends in a Discord chat room between the fall and mid-March.
Among them is a top-secret February 28 report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Directorate, Washington Post mentioned.
They reported that three days ago, on February 25, China successfully tested a new missile, named DF-27 – a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, in the Dongfeng series. All Dongfeng series missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The report said that the missile “has a high probability of penetrating US ballistic missile defenses.”
The February 28 memo also revealed that last year, China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, deployed versions of the new missile that can attack ground targets and ships.
Jacques Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the National Guard, was arrested by FBI officials Thursday for leaking classified US intelligence documents. One of the documents details the new Chinese missile
China has released rare footage of its supersonic and nuclear-capable DF-26 missile during a military exercise. No photos yet from the DF-27 test
DF-17 Dongfeng medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with a DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle, participated in a military parade in October 2019 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The DF-27 is a new and improved version of the DF-17
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere
The new missile contains a hypersonic glide vehicle, designed to fly at more than five times the speed of sound.
They can maneuver in flight, which makes it almost impossible to shoot them down.
The leaked document revealed that the DF-27 flew for 12 minutes and covered 2,100 km (1,300 miles).
Its range is much greater than that: a 2021 Department of Defense report cited by The Washington Post said the DF-27 has a range of 5,000 to 8,000 kilometers, meaning it could hit any target in East or Southeast Asia and large parts of the Pacific. . , including Guam.
Alaska is about 7,200km away: the US mainland is less than 11,000km away, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual analysis, “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.” The report was published in November and cited Newsweek.
The report stated that the DF-27 is designed to enhance (China’s) ability to keep vulnerable targets outside the second island chain and has a high probability of penetrating the US ballistic missile defense system.
The first, second, and third island chains are geopolitical terms, first defined by US military planners in the 1940s, for a series of concentric semicircles extending from China.
The second island chain refers to the area extending from central Japan through the Marianas and Micronesia.
The third is concentrated in Hawaii. The first is closer to China, and extends from southernmost Japan through the South China Sea.
The United States is protected by a ground defense system in the middle of the lane (pictured)
The Chinese army was pictured at a military parade earlier this month. The leaked documents also detailed US assessments of China, including its missile capabilities
China has long been known as a fast paced hypersonic missile programme.
But the latest development comes at a tense time, with concerns growing about Taiwan’s safety.
The leaked documents also showed that China recently used for the first time its new attack helicopter carrier ship, the Yushen LHA-31, on an extended deployment – another worrying update for Taiwan.
Last year, it emerged that the Chinese military is developing a hypersonic anti-ship missile that can travel farther and faster than any conventional torpedo.
The 16-foot-5-inch missile will be able to travel at up to 2.5 times the speed of sound at about 32,800 feet for 124 miles before diving and skimming through waves for up to 12.4 miles.
When the missile comes within about 6.2 miles of its target, it will go into torpedo mode, traveling underwater at up to 100 meters per second using hypercavitation, making a giant bubble of air around it, which greatly reduces drag.
The DF-17 supersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is seen in October 2019
In November 2021, China first tested the ‘Partial Orbital Bombing System’ – a warhead launch system that can evade conventional intercontinental ballistic defense systems.
China’s expansion into hypersonic missile technology and other advanced areas has raised concerns as Beijing becomes more assertive about its claims to seas and islands in the South China and East China Seas, and over large chunks of land along its disputed high mountain border with India.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere, or about 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph).
The United States and Russia are also developing hypersonic missiles, and North Korea said in August that it had test-fired a newly developed hypersonic missile.
In October, the US Army and Navy successfully launched a missile while testing a new class of hypersonic weapon at a NASA coastal facility.
NASA’s Wallop Flight Facility in Virginia hosted the test by Sandia National Laboratories that evaluated hypersonic weapon communications and navigation equipment as well as advanced materials that can withstand heat in a “realistic hypersonic environment,” according to a Navy statement.
The test comes amid growing concerns that Russia and China are more successful in developing their own hypersonic weapons than the United States.
The United States and its global adversaries have accelerated the pace of building hypersonic weapons – next-generation weapons that rob adversaries of their reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms.
The Pentagon’s 2023 budget request already includes $4.7 billion (£4 billion) for hypersonic weapons research and development.
They include planning to introduce a hypersonic missile battery by next year, a naval missile by 2025, and an air cruise missile by 2027.
The Pentagon confirmed that the US Army and Navy successfully launched a missile at a NASA facility in Virginia on October 26 (pictured).
Russia has used hypersonic missiles “multiple times” in Ukraine, according to the top commander of US forces in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the country’s arms manufacturers to develop more advanced hypersonic missiles to maintain the country’s edge in military technologies.
The Russian military said its Avangard system is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound and making sharp maneuvers on its way to a target to evade enemy missile shields.
It was fitted to existing Soviet ICBMs in place of older type warheads, and the first unit armed with the Avangard entered service in December 2019.
