Chinese Hypersonic Boost Glide Vehicle Concept That Launches Its Own Weapons Emerges

Boost-glide vehicles already present significant challenges for defenders and one loaded with various sub-payloads could carry out kinetic strikes and non-kinetic operations like electronic warfare, as well as reconnaissance, against multiple targets across a broader area. While a weapon of this kind could present numerous benefits and additional complications for defenders, releasing payloads from a platform traveling at hypersonic speed also presents substantial technological challenges. A model of the new unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicle concept, called the GDF-600, and some of its payloads are on display at this year’s Zhuhai Airshow in China, which formally opens tomorrow.