Chinese Navy live-fire exercise
In China's weapons system, hypersonic missiles have always been regarded as being the first in the world, and the Dongfeng-17 missile indeed ranks first in the world with a penetration speed of up to Mach 20.
However, China is not only the world's number one in the field of hypersonic weapons . In fact, there are a variety of weapons developed by China that have reached the world's leading level.
Heavy torpedo
Torpedo is one of the most lethal weapons in the field of sea surface warfare. Compared with the anti-ship missile , which mainly threatens the water part of the ship, torpedoes can attack directly from the water, so they can effectively destroy the underwater structure of the enemy ship, causing it to face the dilemma of water intrusion and sinking.
Since the People's Liberation Army has been threatened by force from the U.S. Navy many times before, it attaches great importance to anti-ship capabilities. This has given priority to domestically produced heavy-duty torpedoes in research and development resources.
Chinese Yu-6 heavy torpedo
The main heavy torpedo currently equipped by the People's Liberation Army Navy is the Yu-6 series . It is a thermally powered acoustic line guided anti-submarine torpedo. Its performance is at the same level as the MK-48 533mm heavy torpedo developed by the United States.
With the support of the closed turbine power system, it can reach a maximum speed of 65 knots and a range of 30 kilometers. Since the warhead of the Yu-6 torpedo is as high as 300 kilograms, it can sink a large surface warship with a tonnage of about 8,000 tons, or an underwater submarine with a tonnage of less than 9,500 tons.
Chinese Yu-6 torpedo
However, this Yu-6 series, which has reached the highest performance of the US military, is not the most advanced torpedo in the hands of China. At present, China's heavy torpedoes have developed the fish-10 model , which is more advanced and powerful than previous models in terms of range, accuracy and power.
The US media "Navy News" once disclosed a performance evaluation of the Yu-10. They believe that the Chinese Yu-10 torpedo may have a maximum speed of more than 70 knots, a range of 45 kilometers, a warhead upgraded to 500 kilograms, and the ability to kill aircraft carrier-level targets of tens of thousands of tons with one hit.
In addition, the Chinese military industry department has also ingeniously applied all-electric propulsion technology to torpedoes, which greatly improved the underwater silent effect of torpedoes and became an "underwater killer" that frightens enemy warships. It is reported that the model of this new torpedo is the ET-40 heavy-duty torpedo, with a total weight of up to 1.7 tons, a maximum speed of 45 knots, and a range of about 20 kilometers.
Complete domestic torpedo system
Under the action of all-electric propulsion, the ET-40 torpedo will hardly emit any redundant sound when approaching an enemy warship . Therefore, even a US destroyer equipped with the "Aegis" system will be difficult to ensure that it intercepts the attack of this torpedo. It can be seen from the performance of the above series of domestically produced torpedoes that China's heavy torpedoes are at the absolute leading level in the world.
UAVs
In the field of UAVs, China's military industry has the most complete UAV R&D system in the world. Whether it is a small suicide drone or a large tactical reconnaissance drone, domestic drones have excellent models that can be regarded as the world's leading level.
Take the domestic UAV "Rainbow" series as an example. It basically covers a series of models from low-end to high-end . Its models include reconnaissance, attack, electronic warfare, and other fields, forming a quite complete product system.
Domestic integrated surveillance and attack drones
Among them, the most high-end "Rainbow-7" drone has stealth capabilities , and the RCS value of the fuselage is less than 0.1 square meters. In addition, it also has a take-off weight of 13 tons and a combat radius of 2,000 kilometers. Its comprehensive performance is second to none in the world.
In contrast, the United States has also developed a stealth unmanned attack aircraft project and developed a model named X-47B. However, because the performance indicators did not meet the requirements of the US military, this project ultimately ended in failure . Therefore, for now, this "Rainbow-7" can be regarded as the most advanced attack drone on the international market.
U.S. Army X-47B UAV
The mid-range products of the "Rainbow" series include Rainbow-5 and Rainbow-6. They are both attack drones with excellent performance, priced at more than 3 million US dollars, and are famous for their powerful mounting capabilities.
The mid-range UAV of the "Rainbow" series can carry up to 16 precision-guided bombs, with a combat radius of more than 1,000 kilometers. It poses a very strong threat to enemy ground units such as tanks, armored vehicles, , and signal base stations.
Rainbow-5 drone
As for the "Rainbow" series of low-end drones, they are also hot products in the market. Take Rainbow-3 as an example. Its price is only US$500,000, but its performance exceeds that of Türkiye's "Flagbearer" drone, which sells for US$1.2 million.
Its maximum payload can reach 100 kilograms. It can optionally carry photoelectric reconnaissance equipment or AR-1 ground-attack missiles, and its maximum airborne endurance is up to 12 hours.
With their excellent cost performance, "Rainbow" drones are gaining momentum in the international market. This proves that domestic drones are already synonymous with top performance, high quality and low price in the eyes of various countries.
Rainbow-3 drone
Laser weapon
Laser weapon is a future weapon with strong science fiction color in people's minds, but China's weapons research and development industry has turned it into reality .
In March 2022, the domestically produced laser weapon system "Silent Hunter" showed its prowess in Saudi Arabia, and shot down more than 30 drones belonging to Houthi militants. This means that domestically produced laser weapons have become the first weapons in the world to have actual combat results.
China's "Silent Hunter" laser weapon
However, the "Silent Hunter" that has achieved excellent actual combat results is only at the bottom of China's laser weapons. Its laser power is only 30KW level, while China's most advanced laser weapons have reached 00KW level or above . In theory, it is prepared for the upcoming three-in-one air defense system of "light, artillery and bombs".
This level of domestic laser weapons has a theoretical range of up to hundreds of kilometers, which can destroy incoming local missiles with extremely high efficiency, greatly enhancing the combat efficiency of the air defense system .
Laser Weapon System
In this field, even the United States, which has strong scientific research capabilities, can only accept the disadvantage of China. The most advanced laser weapon system in the United States is still stuck at the 100KW level, and has no actual combat results . It is basically in the laboratory development stage and is unlikely to be transformed into military industry results in the short term.
Therefore, in the field of laser weapons, China undoubtedly ranks first in the world.
