The World Wide Web reported on December 3 that Australia announced that the United States and Australia had jointly developed an air-launched hypersonic missile system. This is the further engineering of the hypersonic technology research project carried out by Australia and the United States, and can be equipped with a fighter-level platform.
At a sensitive moment when China-Australia relations are at a trough, some media said that Australia’s move to challenge China is obvious. However, as far as Australia’s national and military strength is concerned, holding one or two so-called “hypersonic weapons” that have not even formed yet to deal with China is a bit too overwhelming!
Hypersonic weapons are a brand-new weapon concept that has emerged in recent years. A basic expression is that their flight speed must exceed 5 times the speed of sound. Due to their fast flight speed and high technical requirements, only the three major countries of China, the United States and Russia have basically mastered hypersonic speed.
For weapons development and manufacturing technology, the two permanent members of the United Nations, Britain and France, do not have similar technologies and weapons, and other countries cannot even touch the threshold. Currently, the only countries that actually deploy hypersonic weapons are China and Russia. Among them, China has deployed Dongfeng-17, and Russia has deployed “Dagger” and “Pioneer”. The US’s hypersonic weapons are still in the development stage, and there is still room for actual deployment. Some way to go.
Due to the high development cost and high risk of hypersonic weapons, for the sake of reducing risk, the United States is pulling Australia to “jointly develop” this brand new weaponry when developing hypersonic weapons, so that Australia can also share part of the research and development costs.
At present, the United States is close to the successful development of an airborne hypersonic missile numbered AGM-183. This missile is very similar to Russia’s “Dagger” missile in terms of appearance and performance. “Dagger”, the outside world has always suspected that the United States relied on stealing Russian technology to develop the AGM-183 missile in a very short time.
However, one weakness of the AGM-183 is that it is too heavy and can only be carried by the US military’s strategic bombers, while the Russian “dagger” missile can be mounted on the MiG-31 heavy interceptor, which is far better than the US missile. More flexible.
According to Australian media reports, the United States and Australia jointly developed a new type of hypersonic missile, not the current American AGM-183A missile. The volume and weight of the new missile will be greatly reduced, and the F/A-18 “Hornet” can be used in the future.
“The fighter jet is also compatible with the P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft. It is a multi-purpose advanced weapon. And Australia said that the new missile will be put into use in the next five years.
However, it would be a little ridiculous if Australia thought it could challenge China with a missile that was still on the drawings! After all, at present, only China and Russia have deployed mature and reliable hypersonic weapons in the world, and the DF-17 missile shown by China during the National Day last year has a warhead designed directly with a waverider, which can be “water drift” at the edge of the atmosphere.
Flying, therefore, is also called “water drift”. This kind of missile technology is currently not available even in the United States. It is a truly “unique skill.” It is no exaggeration to say that even if Australia installed its own hypersonic missiles five years later, it is at least one generation behind China in terms of technical performance, and is a weapon of “equipment that is backward”.
Today’s China is no longer the poor and weak “Sick Man of East Asia”. Its industrial output exceeds the sum of the three industrial countries of the United States, Germany, and Japan. It is already the largest trading partner of nearly 190 countries in international trade.
Even after the United States took the initiative to provoke the Sino-US trade war, the trade volume between China and the United States has been above US$500 billion. The level of weapons and equipment of the People’s Liberation Army is no longer comparable to that of Australia and his ilk. To say something not very polite, Australia today is not enough to see China as a theater, let alone confrontation with China!
Western countries generally have a habit of superstitious belief in weaponry and technical strength. This is because for hundreds of years, Western countries have always had technological advantages when facing Asian, African, and Latin American countries, so they have used their technological advantages to crush other weak countries and nations.
This is called “dimensionality reduction strike”. Today’s times have changed. With the rise of China, the performance of our weapons and equipment has become an advantage to most Western countries. Australia’s military construction level is not even as good as that of Japan.
