Here are three pictures currently circulated by many Taiwanese media, all seems authentic and quoted from Weibo:
China Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Arms Thread
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Those pictures are of boosters. The DF-21 and DF-26 use multiple stages, I think 3 including payload. Where are these US intelligence reports that Taiwan journalists, using such obviously angry and biased language, seem to possess but no one else has access to.
Those pictures could have even been from other launches of ballistic missiles in the past. Taiwan is currently busy shouting the Communists are going to attack and there was a major exercise last week. So nerves are a bit jittery and media is going insane as usual whenever tensions rise a little and paranoia sets in. However the PRC isn't making it calm for Taiwan either with such a major exercise so their paranoia is more than justified.
Those pictures could have even been from other launches of ballistic missiles in the past. Taiwan is currently busy shouting the Communists are going to attack and there was a major exercise last week. So nerves are a bit jittery and media is going insane as usual whenever tensions rise a little and paranoia sets in. However the PRC isn't making it calm for Taiwan either with such a major exercise so their paranoia is more than justified.
It's obvious from those photos (assuming they are untouched and of AShBM launched last week) that these show first or second stage boosters, probably second if those missiles were launched from north-west China and landed in southern China which it seems like it is due to those dense forest. The payload warhead isn't shown at all so seems like some BS fake news media got their hands on pictures of boosters (assuming of actual event) and thought those were the payloads.
If the PLARF failed to deliver those payloads onto targets successfully, the Americans would know it doesn't work. Therefore the PLARF is unlikely to expose this if they do not have absolute confidence. These weapons have been proven to work reliably for about a decade now so showing off the accuracy of older anti-ship ballistic missiles is to send a message to those who are watching. It isn't likely at all that these failed or it would have failed in the actual objective, show of capability. That's something the CCP would not have allowed and if they weren't sure of success why would they fire them with all the watching eyes.
If the PLARF failed to deliver those payloads onto targets successfully, the Americans would know it doesn't work. Therefore the PLARF is unlikely to expose this if they do not have absolute confidence. These weapons have been proven to work reliably for about a decade now so showing off the accuracy of older anti-ship ballistic missiles is to send a message to those who are watching. It isn't likely at all that these failed or it would have failed in the actual objective, show of capability. That's something the CCP would not have allowed and if they weren't sure of success why would they fire them with all the watching eyes.
This illustration by the Economist is overly simplistic. A hypersonic glider bounces up and down while it flies. The actual flight profile looks more like this:
However, there is also a tradeoff: for the same range, the terminal velocity of a glider is much lower compared to a conventional ballistic missile:
You are correct that in case of a hypersonic glider target, given its minimum engagement altitude of 70km, SM-3 would most probably not be able to intercept it.
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Taiwanese "media" doesn't know the difference between a booster stage and the actual warhead, got it.
As usual with China reporting, these groups piece together actual facts with their own fantasy and fiction to present a ridiculously false story which seemingly has some grounding in reality for the average ignorant reader. In this particular case it is; U-2 has been sent to look into certain aspects of the Chinese exercise, China fired two AShBM into the oceans close to Hainan. Both of these are true but the fiction part is China wanted to show off something they alleged can't have confidence in (puzzling) to make a statement and failed and all of this was detected by the U-2. LOL.
Combine this with pictures of locals who found booster stages (from god knows when and what in truth) and somehow those booster stages mean failed AShBM. Despite the Americans knowing those two missiles hit their targets perfectly. Statement delivered and received. All the main players know what's what. Taiwanese mainland haters going nuts with stories of incoming invasion where the PLA is both incompetent and threatening at the same time. It's Schrodinger's PLA.
Taiwanese news is as trustworthy as Indian news, if not worse, and Indian news is basically as accurate as Bollywood movies when it comes to representing the truth. The thread on Ladakh will show you...
Just last year, a Taiwanese economist declared on news that mainland’s economy is in ruins and people cannot even afford zha cai (a type of food, extremely cheap) because the stock price of a large zha cai company is falling. Even Gordon Chang would not make a comment like that, and he has been predicting collapse of Chinese economy for over 20 years.
Please filter your sources before you post, Minnie Chan is already terrible enough, let’s not actually spend time looking at anything from the mainstream Taiwanese outlet. If I want to watch Epoch Times type of shit from Fa Lun Gong I’d go to their site, not on sinodefense forum.
Finally, I want to rant a bit. As a group of people who claim to be the true and legit descendent of the Chinese culture compared to “the communist thugs”, the level of intellectualism displayed in public discourse in Taiwan has set the bar really low, it is basically embarrassing. No wonder any sane Chinese mainlander will support the Non-serious “留岛不留人” policy when it comes to how the reunification should proceed once they become informed about what occupies the mind of your average Taiwanese.
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