“中国进行了第三次高超音速飞行器试飞，这是其新型战略核武器系统的一部分，它的作用是击败任何美国的对抗措施”，2014年12月4日，美国《华盛顿自由灯塔报》网站（http://freebeacon.com）这样报道。美国五角大楼发言人向该报记者透露，美国监测到中国在12月2日进行了第三次高超音速飞行器试飞。据称，此前中国分别在今年1月5日和8月7日进行了两次同类试验。美方称中国试验的飞行器代号为WU-14。
另据网络消息，12月2日中国太原卫星发射中心发射了一枚长征2号C运载火箭，火箭载荷未知，可能就是美方所说的这次飞行试验。目前关于这次试验的详细情况尚不清楚，美方称这种高超音速飞行器与中国新型洲际导弹的核弹头有关，它的飞行速度可达8倍音速，目前尚无任何方法对抗这种武器的攻击。同时，美媒称，中国的WU-14飞行器是美国“全球快速打击计划”的“山寨版”，尽管众所周知，美国空军的HTV-2高超音速飞行器因技术难度过高被放弃，而陆军的高超音速飞行器在今年8月的试射也以失败告终，在新型高超音速导弹的研制进度上似乎已经落后于中国。
美《华盛顿自由灯塔报》今日刊登文章《中国进行了第三次高超音速滑翔器试飞》（全文附后），作者比尔·格茨称，美国国防部官员对他透露了试验的消息，称美国情报机关监视到了本周二在中国西部进行的这次飞行测试，试验中发射的是WU-14高超音速滑翔器的发展型。美国五角大楼发言人陆战队中校杰夫里·波尔说：“我们注意到了有关这次测试的报道，我们正按常规对外国军事活动进行监控。”
美国陆军高超音速滑翔器外形示意图，这是目前美国唯一进行过完整成功飞行测试的高超音速滑翔器。但今年8月该飞行器的飞行试验失败，火箭在发射台上爆炸
“但是，我们不能确认我们的情报来源或对外国武器系统的评估情况，”波尔中校说。他同时补充，五角大楼敦促中国提高其在国防经费和军事行动方面的透明度，“以避免误会。”
比尔·格茨声称，中国在一年内连续进行三次高超音速飞行试验说明中国正在完成WU-14飞行器的“武器化”工作。
除了上述外媒信息，中文网络上也有关于此次飞行试验的零散信息，如《中国航天报》一篇文章中提到，长二丙火箭副总指挥焦开敏表示：“今年9月至11月，长征二号丙火箭要在两个卫星发射中心的三个发射工位执行4次发射任务。”根据目前公开的发射记录，在9月到11月间中国共发射了3枚长征2号C火箭，这可能是12月2日长征2号C火箭发射的一个侧面佐证。说明这次发射时间比原定时间略有推迟。
此外，在微博上有太原居民拍摄到了天空中的特别景象，一条蜿蜒的“云带”挂在天空中，这一景象与今年8月7日WU-14发射测试时地面居民所观察到的景象非常类似。
到目前为止进行的三次类似试验中，中国的高超音速飞行器都是由长征2号C运载火箭发射升空，在大气层边缘按照“钱学森弹道”在大气上层进行“打水漂”式飞行，由于该飞行器独特的气动设计，它的速度不会出现大幅度衰减，而是保持约7－8倍音速的速度“滑翔”飞行。前两次试验中，飞行器的飞行方向和落点据推测都是在我国西部地区传统进行导弹试验的靶场，这次应该也不例外。
观察者网军事分析员说，长征2号运载火箭是在中国第一种洲际导弹东风-5基础上发展而来的，目前据美国宣称中国还部署有数十枚经过改进的东风-5A型导弹，这些导弹都部署在发射井中，可能安装了3－5个分导式或集束式核弹头，东风-5导弹射程可达12,000公里，可覆盖美国全境。据传，中国正对这种导弹进行进一步改进，代号可能是东风-5B，如果WU-14确实是一种高超音速核弹头，那么它有可能就是为东风-5B系统研制的，通过高超音速滑翔技术来提高这种相对老式导弹的突防能力，确保其作战能力不因为美国的反导系统而被削弱。美国今年早些时候宣布在本土部署第三套NMD反导系统，中国的WU-14高超音速飞行器可能是对美国增加反导系统的一种回应。当然，这样的技术同样也可以用在机动式的东风-31、41等洲际导弹上。
当然，目前在甚至都没有一张图片的情况下对中国的高超音速飞行器发展情况的猜测不可能非常有说服力，上述说法仅供读者参考。但是从目前高超音速飞行器在世界范围内的研制、测试情况来看，将这种飞行器用于核弹头是最容易实现的一种应用方式。
俄罗斯也在研究高超音速飞行器，俄罗斯在去年莫斯科航展上展示了一个据称是经过飞行测试的高超音速飞行器，同样是作为洲际导弹的弹头设计的。
此外，美国、俄罗斯、印度等国还在研制具有动力系统的高超音速飞行器，这些飞行器的动力系统包括火箭发动机和超燃冲压发动机。美苏在上世纪60-70年代就研制过火箭动力的高超音速飞行器，但超燃冲压发动机方面的研究迄今尚无任何国家取得值得一提的重大突破。只有印度声称他们要在10－20年内完成“布拉莫斯2”超燃冲压发动机巡航导弹的研制。
China Conducts Third Flight Test of Hypersonic Strike Vehicle
Missile-launched WU-14 glide vehicle designed for nuclear strike against U.S. through missile defenses
BY: Bill Gertz
December 4, 2014 5:00 am
China conducted the third flight test of a new hypersonic missile this week as part of its strategic nuclear program and efforts to develop delivery vehicles capable of defeating U.S. countermeasures, defense officials said.
The flight test of the developmental WU-14 hypersonic glide vehicle was monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies Tuesday during a flight test in western China.
The latest flight test followed earlier tests of the WU-14 on Jan. 9 and Aug. 7. The three tests indicate that China's development of a strike vehicle capable of traveling up to eight times the speed of sound is a high-priority element in China's large-scale military buildup.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the test but declined to provide details.
"We are aware of reports regarding this test and we routinely monitor foreign defense activities," Marine Corps Lt. Col. Jeff Pool told the Washington Free Beacon.
"However, we don't comment on our intelligence or assessments of foreign weapon systems," Pool added, noting that the Pentagon has encouraged China to adopt greater openness with regard to its defense investments and military objectives "to avoid miscalculation."
Last month in Beijing, the United States and China agreed to a new military accord that called for notifying each country of major military activities. It could not be learned if the Chinese notified the Pentagon in advance of the WU-14 test.
The WU-14 was launched atop a Chinese ballistic missile and released along the edge of space.
Past tests of the glide vehicle were clocked as reaching an estimated speed of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound—around 7,680 miles per hour.
Such speeds create difficult aeronautics and physics challenges for guidance systems and place extreme stress on materials used in construction of the vehicle.
The annual report of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, made public Nov. 20, reveals China’s hypersonic weapons program is a major development effort.
The report said the People's Liberation Army "is developing hypersonic glide vehicles as a core component of its next-generation precision strike capability."
"Hypersonic glide vehicles could render existing U.S. missile defense systems less effective and potentially obsolete," the report said.
The report said once deployed the WU-14 "could enable China to conduct kinetic strikes anywhere in the world within minutes to hours."
China plans to deploy its high-speed glide vehicle by 2020 and a scramjet powered hypersonic vehicle by 2025.
Lee Fuell, technical director for force modernization and employment at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), told the Commission that Chinese glide vehicle is launched on a ballistic missile, dives to hypersonic speed and glides to its target. The weapon currently is assessed to be "associated with [China's] nuclear deterrent forces."
"Of great concern would be if [China] was to apply the same technology and capability with a conventional warhead or even just without a warhead because of the kinetic energy that it has in combination with their theater ballistic missiles ... in a theater role," Fuell said.
The intelligence analyst said that hypersonic vehicles "are extremely difficult to defend against because just the time is so compressed between initial detection, being able to get a track, being able to get a fire control solution, and then just being able to have a weapon that can intercept them in some way just because of the speed at which they're moving."
"If that is combined with more traditional ballistic missile attacks forcing a target to defend against very high aspect warheads coming in this way at the same time they have to defend against low altitude, very high speed targets coming in [another] way, it makes the defense problem orders of magnitude worse for the defender," he said.
The commission report stated that China is expanding its strategic nuclear forces "significantly," with deployment of new missiles, submarines, and multiple-warhead weapons.
Rick Fisher, a China military affairs analyst, said more tests are needed for China to turn the WU-14 into a working weapon.
"But the real story is that such a program is now well underway," said Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center. "For hypersonic systems, all tests, failures, and successes, provide a positive contribution toward the goal of developing a weapon."
The WU-14 is part of what military analysts have said in a growing hypersonic arms race involving China, Russia, and the United States.
Russia's government announced last month that Moscow plans to field hypersonic missiles by 2020.
By contrast, U.S. development of a hypersonic weapons program has been limited.
The Aug. 25 test of the Army's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon ended in disaster after the booster launching the weapon blew up shortly after launch from a test base on Kodiak Island, Alaska.
Funding for hypersonic weapons development also has been limited to around $360 million dollars, an amount critics say is small compared to estimated investments by China.
"It is now necessary for the United States to substantially increase funding in two areas," Fisher, the China military analyst said. "First the U.S. must expand and accelerate its own hypersonic weapons program."
The Pentagon should fund several types of hypersonic systems in a development competition, Fisher said, as well as further research in counter-hypersonic arms.
Past Pentagon research has included development of both guided-but-unpowered glide vehicles, and high-technology scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicles.
A space plane called the X-37 also is being developed as part of a program known as conventional Prompt Global Strike.
U.S. intelligence analysts have said the current Chinese WU-14 program is currently part of its strategic nuclear program. However, China also could use the WU-14 as part of its conventional strike program, such as planning attacks on aircraft carriers in the western Pacific.
"While missile based counter-systems may provide an early solution, there is much more potential in the realm of energy weapons," Fisher said.
"For example, rail guns offer great potential for early solutions to maneuvering hypersonic weapons and this technology deserves much greater funding," he said.
Fisher also said the United States should increase capabilities for targeting China's space and high altitude reconnaissance and surveillance systems, to include satellites.
"These will be absolutely necessary for China to successfully employ its long range hypersonic weapons," he said.
A Chinese Embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Lora Saalman, an expert on China's hypersonic development at the Carnegie Endowment, said after China's second WU-14 test in August that the closeness of the first two tests showed that Beijing is "fast-tracking" the strategic program.
"When compared with the yearly gaps in between its [anti-satellite] and [ballistic missile defense] tests in 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2014, the WU-14 accelerates China's development timeline exponentially," she said in an email in August.
Saalman believes the WU-14 is part of a Chinese version of the U.S. conventional Prompt Global Strike program.
Lora Saalman, an expert on China's hypersonic development at the Carnegie Endowment, said China's third test of the Wu-14 in one year is unusual.
"Not only does this third test of the WU-14 in one year indicate that this is a priority program for China, it also suggests that U.S. historical concerns over a Chinese quantitative 'sprint to parity' in nuclear weapons are misdirected," she said.
"Instead, China is racing ahead on qualitatively developing their advanced conventional weapons," Saalman stated in an email. "Such developments are significant in that the posture guiding use of these weapons is not guided by nuclear taboo or no first use."
Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic forces specialist, said the latest Chinese hypersonic vehicle test poses "a serious threat."
"The National Air and Space Intelligence Center has said in open testimony before the China Commission that the vehicle is nuclear and there may also be a conventional version," Schneider said.
"There is not really a race in hypersonic weapons," he added. "U.S. programs are small scale due to budget cuts."
Russia's announced programs on hypersonics include a high-speed missile for a new stealth bomber, hypersonic warheads for Russian ballistic missiles, and a joint cruise missile program with India, Schneider said. "We are clearly losing our technical edge."
(Bill Gertz is the senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon.)
