Theory and Application J-20

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Prompt Global Strike was cancelled because the US stopped funding hypersonic weapons research until Chinese hypersonic developments. Yeah technically you can say it's still on the table because the US has put money into its hypersonic program again. Like the airborne laser program was suppose to knock out ICBMs from hundreds... thousands of miles away. That was the hype. That would've been a huge feat but cancelled. If it could knock out an ICBM from those distances, it could knock anything down. It would literal be an impenetrable shield from standoff distances. It would be a game changer but it was cancelled. Why? It didn't live up to the hype. The only way it would work was to have all conditions in its favor also known as unrealistic. Laser energy dissipates quickly through an atmosphere so you're not going to get the power to generate on an aircraft to go the distance. The airborne laser would have to be flying over enemy territory loitering over the missile before or as it's launched to get a chance. Meaning the airborne laser would more likely get shot down before it had a chance to even try. If a country has an ICBM, chances are they'll have the anti-aircraft capabilities to knock it down. It's not just the laser too. You have a laser attached to a moving object targeting another moving object flying at hypersonic speeds. What's the diameter of the laser? Pencil thin? Just imagine the technological and mechanical engineering required to keep a pencil thin laser trained on one spot between two moving objects, with turbulence, hundreds or thousands of miles apart with enough time to burn through. Yet hype made it sound like it was just around the corner.

If we go by Pentagon estimates, the J-20 wouldn't have been seen for another 10 years. When Prompt Global Strike was taunted to the world, it initiated China's hypersonic program in secret. The US hasn't even gotten to the point of maneuvering and landing an unmanned hypersonic vehicle. So how far ahead was the US in hypersonic research from China? When people think China is behind, they want to make it sound China is in the primitive cave man stage compared to modern human Americans. China has done stuff with hypersonic research that the US hasn't yet reached that level. Couldn't have been stolen because one can't steal something the competition doesn't have. So when someone charges China is X years behind the US, does that really mean anything? And Made in China 2025 shouldn't worry the West because China is always going to be behind.
 
Top