Foreword: DF-17 hypersonic missile is the world's first unsupportable strong penetration precision strike weapon, the first appearance in 2019 to the world a down, but also the most powerful offensive weapon so far, the former commander of the US Pacific Command Harris claimed that China's hypersonic technology has surpassed the United States, the U.S. Strategic Command Commander HaiTeng believes that China's hypersonic weapons are a threat that the United States cannot defend, Intercepting the DF-17 hypersonic missile became the most important thing for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency in the coming years.
One: the development of the US missile defense system
Ballistic missiles have an obvious feature, that is, the use of vertical launch method, as far as possible to shorten the atmospheric flight time, after the end of the engine work, the warhead has no power to rely on kinetic energy along a predetermined parabolic ballistic flight, ballistic missiles fly fast, a little bit of maneuver can deviate from tens of kilometers, China's Dongfeng -1. DF-3.Dongfeng-4.DF-5.DF-11.DF-15.DF-21 and DF-31 are all first-generation ballistic missiles, almost all active ballistic missiles use this mode, this mode of ballistic missiles do not have mobility, so it is relatively easy to deal with, China's second-generation ballistic missiles are Dongfeng-21D and Dongfeng-26 missiles, these two types of missiles with the control surface of the terminal correction ballistic, with a certain degree of maneuverability, improve the difficulty of enemy defense. However, China's DF-21D and DF-26 missiles have relative maneuverability at an altitude of 40 kilometers, and the altitude above this is parabolic ballistic flight without any maneuverability.
During the Cold War, the United States deployed the "Guard" strategic anti-missile system, but the guidance accuracy is too low, can only use 100,000 tons of nuclear warheads, but the nuclear warheads in their own areas detonated serious nuclear pollution and electromagnetic pulse killing, more than worth the loss, and finally closed in 1976, in March 1983, the Reagan administration proposed the "Star Wars Plan", envisioning through the development of a variety of advanced non-nuclear space three-dimensional defense network interception of incoming nuclear missiles, "Star Wars" plan from a technical point of view extremely difficult to achieve, and finally abandoned in 1993 However, the Americans launched a new missile defense system under the real technology, and this anti-missile program was divided into the "theater missile defense system" to protect the US overseas garrison and the "national missile defense system" to protect the US mainland, and worked hard for twenty years, and finally built the "THAAD" theater missile system and the "Standard" -3 missile, as well as the "Patriot" -3 air defense missile and the "Standard" -2 air defense missile system in the atmosphere.
These air defense missiles pose a serious threat to many of China's medium- and short-range ballistic missiles, especially the "THAAD" missile and the "Standard" -3 air defense missile, the 21st century is the century of the Chinese Navy, the struggle to control the sea began from breaking through the first island chain used by the United States to blockade China, with the rise of the Chinese Navy, the Sino-US struggle will be a huge scale of sea and air confrontation, and the US missile defense system has made China's first- and second-generation ballistic missiles face difficulties. In response to the U.S. challenge, China introduced the third-generation DF-17 missile, which is divided into a steering rudder tail booster and a triangular head. The three unusually sharp warheads are at a 60-degree angle to each other. From the edge of the sleek transition to the middle, the bottom surface is slightly curved, the two sides are similar to the plane, the warhead is 1 meter wide, 6 meters long, the length ratio is very large, which is a typical lift multiplier design, such a shape greatly reduces the flight resistance,
Dongfeng-17 has a range of about 2200 kilometers, a new type of radar seeker is installed in the front section of the head, the shell adopts an aerogel design with similar density and air, which can isolate the high temperature of thousands of degrees, the interior is built with conventional aluminum alloy, boosted by the rocket engine to an altitude of 60 kilometers, and then glided at a high speed of Mach 10 to an altitude of 30 kilometers, and finally maneuvered dive at Mach 4-5, this speed is not particularly fast, but the triangular full-motion rudder surface with a cross-shaped layout can control pitch, roll and side slide. Is a very cleverly designed warhead, improve the warhead's lift-to-drag ratio, the same initial speed under the higher the lift-to-drag ratio, the farther the skid jump distance, the stronger the lateral maneuvering and penetration capabilities, high maneuverability makes interception almost impossible, the United States gliding warhead lift resistance is greater, but due to control system design errors, the flat flight turn side-slip maneuver when the test failed many times.
Ballistic missile speed is fast, but the ballistic track is dull and easy to predict, cruise missile ballistic flexible, but the speed is too low, the DF-17 hypersonic missile is a combination of the advantages of these two missiles, the trajectory of the DF-17 is in the atmosphere throughout the water drift ballistic flight, the attack altitude of the US "THAAD" missile is 40 km -150 km, The maximum speed is Mach 8.24, the range is 200 kilometers, theoretically speaking, the DF-17 hypersonic missile has a certain probability of interception, but the DF-17 missile begins to reduce the altitude dive at an altitude of 40 kilometers, the "THAAD" missile is completely powerless against flying objects below 40 kilometers, the TTY-2 active phased array radar guidance law of the THAAD missile is to predict the trajectory of the target, and the orbital parameters of the non-mobile ballistic missile are completely fixed, and the interception of the missile can be accurately guided. But in the face of the DF-17, a missile that jumps up and down and left and right in the atmosphere, with both speed and high maneuverability, there is not much to do.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to upgrade the software and hardware of the SPY-1 phased array radar on the Ticosoga-class cruisers and The Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and to launch a Standard-3 and Standard-6 to an anti-missile interception system for the proximity of space interceptors to intercept DF-17 hypersonic missiles, and the range and height of the Standard-3 anti-missile missiles can fully meet the tactical requirements. However, to intercept the hypersonic missile in the boost-gliding mode, it is necessary to modify the warhead of the Standard-3 with a mass of only 20 kg, and when the Standard-3 leaves the atmosphere, the first and second stages of the missile all fall off, but in the adjacent space fairing can not be shaken off, and the infrared detection device of the fairing cannot be turned on without throwing off, so the Standard-3 must increase the weight of the warhead, thereby shortening the range and height. The most important requirement of the interceptor is to shoot a high energy of up to 100 kilometers near the upper boundary of the space layer, because the DF-17 hypersonic missile will fly a long distance at this altitude.
Two: Aegis missile defense system
In the late 1970s, the United States designed an Aegis system to deal with the saturation attack of Soviet anti-ship missiles, the first generation of Ticonderoga class cruiser CG-47 Ticonderoga entered service on January 22, 1983, this kind of warship equipped with a four-sided phased array radar symbolizes the super combat power of the battleship, the initial Aegis system was to be installed on nuclear-powered cruisers, and then changed to be installed on the Ticonderoga class cruisers, starting from CG-47 to CG-73, a total of 27 ships were built. The CG-47 to CG-51, which uses the Mk-26 dual-arm missile launcher, was retired between 2004 and 2005, and the 22 currently in service are equipped with Mk-41 vertical launchers, the CG-47 to CG-58 are equipped with SPY-1A phased array radars, the CG-59 to CG-64 is equipped with lightweight SPY-1B phased array radars, and the CG-65 to CG-73 is equipped with upgraded SPY-1B phased array radars.
In the 1980s, the U.S. Navy launched a new type of destroyer development program, after drawing on the operation and construction experience of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, the new generation of destroyers of course also adopted the Aegis system, in April 1985, the new DDG-51 destroyer began to be built, the first ship Burke destroyer was launched on September 16, 1989, the updated SPY-1D phased array radar focused on the front superstructure at a 45-degree angle, in order to ensure that the radar perspective was not obscured. The rear superstructure, including chimneys, was elongated in the center of the hull, and after the last Spruance-class destroyer, the DD-985 Kusin, was decommissioned on September 21, 2005, the Burke class became the only destroyer in the U.S. Navy, the largest number of destroyers built by the U.S. Navy after World War II.
The first batch of Burke-class destroyers was DDG-51 to DDG-71, a total of 21, this batch was not equipped with a helicopter magazine, only the aft with flight deck, only to provide helicopters to pause landing for refueling, rather than going to sea with the ship, from DDG-72 to DDG-78 is the second batch, the main improvement is to increase the joint tactical intelligence distribution system, DDG-79 Osca. The Austin began to make a number of important improvements, the most obvious of which was the addition of two helicopter magazines, and the Mk-41 vertical missile launcher originally installed in this location was improved, the two quad harpoon missile launchers behind the chimney were removed, and the rear radar antenna was also raised upwards, before 1996, the U.S. Navy had 34 ships equipped with Aegis, but did not have the ability to defend against ballistic missiles, and by 2010, the number of ships equipped with Aegis doubled to 68. Of these, 18 ships with ballistic missile defenses,
Japan was the first country outside the United States to possess an Aegis shield, and between 1990 and 1998, the Maritime Self-Defense Force built and received four Kongo-class destroyers (DDG-173 to DDG-176). In appearance is obviously much higher than the American Burke class, mainly because of the task of having a combat command center, weapons and equipment and the United States equipped with about the same type and quantity, between 2004 and 2008, Japan purchased two More Atago-class destroyers (DDG-177 and DDG-178), in the face of China's ballistic missile threat, Japan paid special attention to ballistic missile defense capabilities, between 2007 and 2010, South Korea built three Sejong King-class Aegis destroyers ( DDG-991, DDG-992, and DDG-993). Equipped with a large number of homemade weapons and equipment, these modifications also added a lot of weight to the Sejong King-class destroyers, so that their full load displacement completely exceeded the 10,000-ton mark, becoming the largest tonnage member of all the Burke-class destroyer families.
Three: the development of missiles used in the Aegis missile defense system
The original design of the Aegis system was to counter the threat of air and anti-ship missiles, for a small number of incoming missiles is quite capable, but ballistic missiles are an emerging threat, the utility of the Aegis system to them is mostly unknown, with the upgrade of the Aegis system, the U.S. Navy's ballistic missile and cruise missile defense capabilities are also continuing to improve, at the end of January 2008, the U.S. military found that its USA-193 satellite out of control and may crash, in order to prevent the satellite's highly toxic fuel leakage caused by disasters when falling The U.S. military decided to destroy the satellite in orbit with the newly developed Standard III and sent the CG-70 Lake Erie cruiser to launch the Standard III missile on February 20, 2008, to destroy the runaway satellite. The success of this mission allowed the Ticonderoga-class cruisers to extend their air defense capabilities upwards to the edge of the atmosphere.
The U.S. Navy's medium- and long-range air defense missiles are divided into two major families, one is the standard type I missile responsible for medium-range regional air defense and the standard type II missile evolved from it, the military number is mainly RIM-66, and then subdivided into the sub-types from A to M, and the second is the standard extended range missile equipped with thrust, the military number is mainly RIM-67, the model is developed from type A to type E, the first standard type I missile was successfully tested in 1965, and entered service two years later, numbered RIM-66A. The first batch of marker seekers were conical scan antennas. The fourth batch is the most produced model, the focus of the improvement is to strengthen the ability of electronic countermeasures, the fifth batch due to too many modifications, so the new number is RIM-66B, switched to the flatbed scanning antenna and the new Mk56 dual thrust rocket motor, the range and height increased by 45% and 25% respectively, in order to cooperate with the Aegis system, the sixth batch of standard I missiles improved into standard II medium-range missiles
The first batch of standard type II medium-range missiles numbered RIM-66C, mass production began in 1978, discontinued in 1983, the guidance method no longer uses full radar illumination semi-active guidance, but combines inertial navigation, command guidance and terminal radar illumination semi-active, can control the missile to fly near the predetermined interception point, RIM-67C belongs to the second batch of standard two-type extended range missiles, the new MK70 booster makes the missile's range has grown amazingly, reaching 185 km away, AN/ SPY-1 radar can command multiple missiles at the same time to deal with multiple air attack targets, without the need to use the illumination radar throughout the range increased by up to 60% compared to the standard type, the second batch of improvements focused on replacing the new Mk104 rocket engine, the range was doubled, has reached the maximum effective distance of the illumination radar, the third batch is to reduce the size with the vertical launch system is RIM-66M, the most obvious is the shortened and tailless MK72 vector thrust control booster,
In 1994, in order to defend against theater ballistic missiles, the U.S. Navy worked intensively to implement the development plan for the fourth batch A RIM-156B, the difference between the RIM-156B and the A type using dual-mode RF/infrared mappers and the newly developed automatic navigation system, which was originally scheduled to be operational in 2003, but the entire U.S. missile defense program was reversed, resulting in the cancellation of the RIM-156B program. Instead, it is more suitable for intercepting RIM-161 at high altitude at the edge of the atmosphere, RIM-161 because of the extremely large modification range, so it is renamed the standard TYPE III, in order to intercept the ballistic missile in the outer atmospheric missile layer, so the terminal guidance does not use the semi-active radar method of the previous standard missiles, but instead uses a very sensitive infrared tracker. Secondly, the warhead is also replaced by impact interception to destroy the target, the standard "-3IA/B batch maximum speed of Mach 8.8, range 900 km, 1IA batch missile maximum speed of Mach 13.2, range 1500 km,
The standard type III is a ballistic missile defense system in the outer atmosphere, with a shooting height of 80 kilometers, and is not suitable for targets such as aircraft or cruise missiles in the atmosphere, so the U.S. Navy develops extended-range air defense missiles based on RIM-156, that is, standard six missiles, which were officially finalized as RIM-174A in February 2008 and began small-scale production in 2009, but the maximum height of the Standard-6 ship-to-air missile is about 34 kilometers, and there is still a long way to go from the upper boundary of the space layer. When intersecting with hypersonic missiles, the relative speed reaches Mach 10-12, the proximity fuze is difficult to detonate accurately at such a speed, even if the fragments of 600 to 1300 to 1300 / sec produced by the explosion can not destroy the hypersonic missile, if the standard-6 is improved to 100 km high, then it is necessary to thicken the coarse first-level and second-level projectiles similar to the standard-3, increase the kinetic energy and potential energy of the missile, followed by the kinetic energy collision warhead,
Fourth: The contest between the US missile defense system and China's hypersonic weapons
DF-17 hypersonic missile has a long flight distance is in the "adjacent space" at an altitude of 30 to 100 kilometers, where the atmosphere is extremely thin, but the missile can still maintain extremely high-speed flight, the ballistic missile with a range of 1500 kilometers rushes into the atmosphere after flying 1400 kilometers, entering the combat range of the interceptor missile, but the Dongfeng-17 hypersonic missile enters the adjacent space at 900 kilometers, which means that the early warning time of the ballistic missile defense system is shortened or even insufficient. The traditional radar detection altitude for aircraft is low, there is no detection ability for adjacent space vehicles, and radar cannot recognize hypersonic missiles that are wrapped in high-temperature atmospheric plasma layers in nearby space, and plasma clusters will be judged by radar as lightning phenomena.
The missile will then fly hundreds of kilometers at this altitude, the US military can not launch the standard -3 missile interception, because the missile at this altitude will encounter considerable atmospheric resistance, the guidance radar will not be able to turn on, even can not work, can not launch the standard -6 interception, because this altitude is too high for the standard -6, in addition, the calculation program of the ballistic missile defense system is aimed at ballistic missiles, it is difficult to predict how the DF-17 hypersonic missile will fly next, for now, The U.S. ballistic missile defense system can not effectively intercept the DF-17 hypersonic missile, the ballistic missile defense system that has worked hard for twenty years is facing a "zeroing crisis", of course, the DF-17 hypersonic missile is not completely unable to intercept, if its upward interception rate is high, the interception rate in the middle section is very low, and once it enters the adjacent space segment, the interception rate is zero.
The biggest weakness of the DF-17 hypersonic missile is that the warhead has no engine, the flight is constantly slowing down, the terminal speed is getting lower and lower, the United States proposed a regional gliding stage weapon system, hoping to improve the interception rate of the near space segment, but from the current point of view, China's pace is much faster, the United States is still in the envision stage, the Dongfeng-17 hypersonic missile has been equipped in batches, according to China's weapons development law, the next generation of hypersonic missiles are already in the process of research and development. A new generation of hypersonic missiles may transition from conventional missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers to strategic missiles with a range of 10,000 kilometers, and the boost section must reduce the possibility of being detected by infrared sensors of space-based reconnaissance satellites, and also install a scramjet engine on the warhead, so that hypersonic missiles always fly at 5 to 10 Hz, making it almost impossible for future space-based lasers or kinetic energy interceptors to intercept.