China's Skip-Gliding Hypersonic Weapon: The U.S. Military's Can't Match It?

China's Skip-Gliding Hypersonic Weapon: The U.S. Military's Can't Match It?

Brandon J. Weichert

Summary and Key Points: China's recent advancements in hypersonic weapons, mainly through the "skip-gliding" technique, are closing the gap with, and potentially surpassing, the United States in this critical area.

-This maneuver allows hypersonic missiles to "ping-pong" off the Earth's upper atmosphere, extending their range by 34% and making them incredibly difficult to intercept.

-While the U.S. has made progress with hypersonic prototypes, China’s rapid development and commitment to maturing these technologies, combined with their potential to deliver devastating strikes on U.S. infrastructure, present a significant threat.

-The U.S. must recognize and address this growing challenge to maintain its global military superiority.

China is Beating the US in Hypersonic Weapons

If you’ve ever been out near a pond or a lake for a protracted period of time, you’ve likely taken a rock and skipped it across the surface of the water. How heavy the rock is, its shape, and the strength of your arm all help determine how far a rock will go when you throw it. But if you want to send it really far, one of the best ways to do that is make the rock skip across the body of water, rather than throwing it over. 

That same idea undergirds research from the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center. Only instead of rocks, the Chinese researchers are experimenting with advanced hypersonic missiles. 

Skip-gliding takes a hypersonic kill vehicle to the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere – the place where the upper atmosphere crosses into space – and effectively ping-pongs off the denser layers that atmospheric region.

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