China develops missile with thousands-mile range

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Key points

• By Gerry Doyle, BloombergLast Updated: Aug 24, 2026, 08: 44: 00 PM IST.
• The DF-27 missile has a maximum range of regarding 5, 000 miles, putting Hawaii in range.
• China's J-16 fighter jets share skies with Rafales in Egypt Such weapons would pose a serious threat to US air operations during a conflict with China.
• Understanding business to figure out the mystery: Power Grid Corp – Part 1.
• The US is struggling with supplies of crucial air defense missiles and long-range strike weapons after six months of war with Iran.

Nifty24, 219.05-32.96. Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund Direct-Growth. The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now. China develops missile to target planes thousands of miles away. China develops missile to target planes thousands of miles away.

China has developed hypersonic glide vehicles capable of launching air-to-air weapons. These advanced weapons threaten high-value targets thousands of miles away. The US faces missile supply challenges after a recent conflict with Iran. China's missile arsenal has grown significantly, increasing its military capabilities. Such developments pose a serious threat to future US air operations.

For context, the Chinese military has developed hypersonic glide vehicles that can launch air-to-air weapons, an advancement meant to threaten high-value targets such as command-and-control aircraft thousands of miles away. The breakthrough is part of a larger effort by China to employ its missile arsenal – the world's largest at more than 3, 150 ballistic weapons – for almost every military task, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Meanwhile, the US is struggling with supplies of crucial air defense missiles and long-range strike weapons after six months of war with Iran. China additionally went on air-to-air capabilities to some hypersonic cruise missiles and built anti-ship capabilities into a number of types of missiles, remarked the person. This person asked not to be identified since of the sensitivity of the information.

China's J-16 fighter jets share skies with Rafales in Egypt Such weapons would pose a serious threat to US air operations during a conflict with China. Backing aircraft such as tankers, airborne warning-and-control planes and even flying command posts such as the E-4B Nightwatch are meant to operate far from combat. Live Events.

Notably, a hypersonic glide vehicle deployed from a DF-17 missile could travel regarding 1, 500 miles (2, 414 kilometers) – just short of the distance from China to the US territory of Guam, a major military site. The DF-27 missile has a maximum range of regarding 5, 000 miles, putting Hawaii in range. Hypersonic glide vehicles, or HGVs, are warheads that can maneuver in the atmosphere on their way to a target, extending range and complicating interception. No other country is known to operate weapons that combine an HGV with air-to-air missiles. For context, a report from the US Air Force's China Aerospace Studies Institute this year remarked, without providing details, that China's missile modernization efforts "increasingly prioritize the ability to inflict coordinated, system-level damage across an adversary's operational architecture." To be sure, using what is essentially a ballistic missile to attack a distant aircraft is costly, challenging and risky.: China's Xi probable to visit India with sizeable delegation for first time in seven years The travel time of a ballistic missile – 20 minutes or more at maximum range – means that targeting information must be extremely precise. That long "kill chain" of getting distant sensor information to the missile makes operations easier to disrupt. Ballistic missiles additionally can be mistaken for a nuclear attack. When it may inadvertently provoke a nuclear response, this so-called discrimination difficulty complicates the weapon's apply, especially during an all-out war. China appeared to ramp up missile production last year by the most since Xi Jinping became president in 2013, Bloomberg documented in May, mapping out the sector's finances for the first time. When India and Pakistan had a brief conflict, china's long-range PL-15 air-to-air missile saw combat last year. Pakistan remarked it employed the weapons to shoot down a number of Indian aircraft. The Pentagon estimates China had at least 3, 150 ballistic missiles and 300 ground-launched cruise missiles as of 2024. When the US began disclosing such estimates, those represent increases of 147% and 50%, respectively, from 2015. Long-range air-to-air weapons are considered key to any future conflict. The US developed the AIM-174B from its RTX Corp. SM-6 air defense missile; its exact range is classified but the ground-launched SM-6 has a range of 250 miles or more. On Saturday, the US Navy remarked it was testing the AIM-424 Malice air-to-air missile from RTX unit Raytheon Co. It it stated had a range of more than 300 miles. The Lockheed Martin Corp. AIM-260 missile, which is in production but not yet in service, is additionally anticipated to have extremely long range. MBDA Missile Systems Services SAS' Meteor, widely applied in Europe, is ramjet-powered and can hit targets more than 100 miles away. Add Now!

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Taken together, the developments around china develops missile with thousands point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.