A video showing a previously undisclosed test of a new hypersonic ballistic missile was released by China’s military.
It was discovered on Chinese social media only days before the 73rd birthday of the Chinese fleet and conversations between US and Chinese military officials.
The missiles in the video are almost certainly China’s YJ-21, commonly known as the Eagle Strike 21, which has a range of 620 miles.
Due to the absence of formal launches, the missile’s specs are unknown, but NavalNews’ research implies it is a cold-launched large anti-ship rocket with a hypersonic glide component.
The test footage is being released at a time when the US is worried about the lack of a robust domestic hypersonics program.
**BREAKING** -> https://t.co/uUuAXli7ge#China's New Hypersonic Missile on Type-055 Cruiser For First Time
— H I Sutton (@CovertShores) April 19, 2022
Likely YJ-21 anti-ship ballistic missile. A theory of what it is related to
Now Chinese Navy cruisers are arguably the most heavily armed surface combatants in the world pic.twitter.com/8qPyXsFd1s
Defense officials in the United States have stated that the military will need to develop new technology quickly in order to counter China’s hypersonic missiles, which they believe may be used as a nuclear first-strike capability.
A Type 055 warship, China’s most powerful surface warfare ship and a potentially key weapon in the country’s increasing fleet of aircraft carriers, fired the rocket.
US aircraft carriers at risk from Chinese hypersonic missile https://t.co/m9aMo5ru3U via @thetimes
— Nino Brodin (@Orgetorix) April 21, 2022
The warship, which was completed in 2017, is also the country’s largest surface combatant, weighing almost 13,000 tons vs the US Navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruisers, which weigh around 9,800 tons.
The footage was released just days before US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Wei Fenghe, had a tense phone conversation on April 20, Austin’s first since entering office.
Following the call, the Pentagon released a brief statement indicating that the officials addressed worldwide security problems.
Sino–American relations would suffer if the US undercut the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) stance that Taiwan is a part of China, according to Chinese authorities.
