Taiwan has completed the design of a hypersonic cruise missile that would be ready for mass production by next year at the earliest, a senior official said on Saturday.
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (NCIST) has finished work on the Ching Tien (擎天) missile — formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰) II — a two-stage design that uses a solid-fuel rocket to gain altitude before switching to a ramjet engine to accelerate to hypersonic speeds, a high-ranking official familiar with the nation’s defense research and development programs said on condition of anonymity.
Although the NCIST has not released details of the Ching Tien missile’s performance to the public, outside experts have speculated that it might have a velocity of three to five times the speed of sound and a range about 1,250km.
Photo: Screen grab from the CSIS Web site
Ching Tien missiles would enable Taiwan to strike at strategic targets in China’s interior, such as Beijing and Wuhan, significantly enhancing the nation’s deterrence capabilities, the official said.
The hypersonic missiles would utilize land-based launch vehicles that could be hidden in concealed shelters or tunnels during peacetime, and deployed to attack targets during wartime, they said, adding that their mobility would allow them to stay ahead of satellite-based surveillance platforms.
The Ministry of National Defense plans to initiate the missile’s mass production next year under the regular national defense budget for fiscal year 2027, the official said.
Russia is the only country in the world that possesses an operational hypersonic weapon — the 3M22 Zircon, which it has used against Ukraine.
China is arming its destroyers with YJ-20 anti-ship ballistic missiles which claim to have hypersonic capabilities, while the US is developing a hypersonic weapon that would supposedly enter service next year.
The NCIST has also made plans to improve the performance of Taiwanese air defense systems to handle a hypersonic missile threat, including a planned extended-range version of the Tien Kung III missile, the official said.
This new weapon would have a maximum altitude of 70km, which is required to intercept China’s Dongfeng missiles and hypersonic weapons, they said.
Taiwan’s AN/FPS-115 PAVE PAWS long-range radar in Hsinchu County’s Leshan (樂山) and arrangements to exchange intelligence with US-operated low-Earth orbit satellites are intended to combat this threat, they added.
The official said they hoped the legislature would support the ministry’s budget, as next year could prove a strategically crucial period for Taiwan’s race to build defensive and deterrence capabilities.
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