CHINA-PLA: HYPERSONIC VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT
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Sources close to the PLA revealed that the PLA carried out a second, albeit unsuccessful, test of a hypersonic vehicle on August 7, 2014. The first test was successful and conducted in January this year. This test was carried out at a missile and satellite launching centre in Shanxi province, about 300km from its capital Taiyuan. The vehicle broke up soon after it was launched. The vehicle is designed to be carried by a ballistic missile to an undisclosed suborbital altitude and then released. It then dives towards its target at speeds of up to Mach 10, or more than 12,000km/h. The US, which is the only other nation known to have developed similar technology, has dubbed the Chinese vehicle the WU-14.
Hongkong's South China Morning Post quoted a hypersonic expert as saying that China had more than 100 teams from leading research institutes and universities involved in the project.
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