Recently, a piece of news from North Korea shocked the global military community.
The Korean People's Army's Missile Directorate successfully test-fired the Hwasong-16B hypersonic vehicle, an achievement that not only demonstrates the DPRK's rapid progress in the field of hypersonic technology, but also highlights its ambitions in the field, KCNA reported.
The Hwasong-16B hypersonic vehicle successfully splashed down on a predetermined target in the northwest of the Sea of Japan after flying about 1,000 kilometers.
What's even more remarkable is that the aircraft also performed jump and sideslip maneuvers during flight, which is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in hypersonic technology.
From a technical point of view, the design of the Hwasong-16B can be called advanced.
It uses a solid rocket motor take-off section, plus a front-section glider design.
Compared with the previous Hwasong-16, the Hwasong-16B is upgraded not only in the replacement of the first-stage booster from a liquid rocket engine to a solid rocket engine, but also in the design of its hypersonic glide.
Compared with the previous bipyramidal configuration, the complex multi-curved waverider design adopted by the Hwasong-16B is undoubtedly more advanced.
This design has extremely high requirements in terms of materials, thermal management, aerodynamics, etc., but the advantages are also enormous.
It supports the aircraft to jump and slide in the near space, which greatly improves the penetration efficiency.
The success of this test launch not only verified North Korea's strength in the field of hypersonic technology, but also made the outside world full of expectations for its future military development.
At the same time, South Korea and Japan also expressed great concern about the test launch.
According to information released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Republic of Korea and the Joint Staff Supervision Department of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, they closely monitored the test launch of the Hwasong-16B, but apparently did not fully grasp its flight trajectory and data.
The successful test launch of the Hwasong-16B has undoubtedly brought new possibilities to the DPRK's military strategy.
With a take-off weight of about 30 tons, it is possible to reach a fairly long range even with conventional ballistics.
And in the case of the use of hypersonic vehicles for range extension, the strike range of the Hwasong-16B is greatly expanded.
Faced with North Korea's rapid development in the field of hypersonic technology, we can't help but ask, how is this done?
Could it really be that "North Korea picked up the manual"?
Of course, this is just a joke.
In fact, this is inseparable from the hard work and continuous investment of North Korean scientific researchers.
They have achieved what they are today through continuous research and experimentation.
In general, the successful test launch of the North Korean Hwasong-16B hypersonic vehicle has undoubtedly demonstrated to the world the strength and ambition of the DPRK in the field of military science and technology.
In the future, we look forward to seeing more exciting performances of North Korea's military technology.