PLA Ground Forces news, pics and videos
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Henri K. believes that this is a "near-space" supersonic cruise missile, which may be another name for the vaunted VLS-borne anti-ship BM.
I'm not sure about that; the near space supersonic cruise missile by virtue of its name suggests an air breathing weapon, whereas an AShBM of course is not air breathing.
Furthermore, the TEL and by extension the canister size of that weapon in the picture appears too large to be carried by the universal VLS (looking at the TEL and comparing it to the same family of TEL used by DF-10). The VLS borne anti ship ballistic missile/HGV that has been mentioned in the past was also described by yankee as a weapon that would equip 055, and by extension that means it would be small enough to be carried in the UVLS.
My understanding was that the long range supersonic cruise missile project and the ship launched AShBM/HGV were two separate projects, with the former being quite a bit further along in development than the latter.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
You're right; the original Chinese text supposedly says that it's a cruise missile.
This missile seems to be the same as the mystery twin-box type that was first seen many, many years ago and was initially misidentified as a YJ-18.
Yes, that's the exact TEL and canister in question I was thinking about.
For the purposes of rehearsal they have covered up the canister and the rear part, but looking at the rehearsal picture and that set of TEL pictures they are of the same type, possibly with some minor differences.
There was a since-deleted wechat article from a commentator a few weeks ago that we might be seeing the new supersonic long range cruise missile at the parade, and it seems like they may have been right.
