According to specialists working on the project, China is creating a supersonic anti-ship missile that can run quicker and further than any conventional torpedo.
As reported first by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), The 5 m (16.4 ft) missile will be able to travel 124 miles (200 km) at a rate of 2.5 times the speed of sound while cruising at an altitude of 10,000 m (32,800 ft). Then, it will dive and skim across the water for up to 20 kilometers.
The missile will switch to torpedo mode once it is about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from its target and will then travel underwater at up to 100 meters per second (200 knots) using supercavitation, which is the formation of a large air bubble around it that reduces drag, according to the researchers.
Additionally, it will be able to alter its path at any time and may crash dive to a depth of up to 100 meters (328 feet) to avoid underwater defenses without losing speed.
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"Cross-Media" Attack
No ship defense system is made to withstand such a quick "cross-media" attack, according to lead scientist Li Pengfei and his colleagues. They claimed that doing so would significantly increase the missile's capacity to penetrate.
According to SMCP, the power system is one of the major difficulties for the designers because it must generate a significant amount of force while breathing either air or water.
However, the team claimed that the issue might be resolved by employing boron, a light element that reacts strongly and generates great heat when exposed.
The team hails from the college of aerospace science and engineering at the National University of Defence Technology in Changsha. They disclosed details of the plan in the peer-reviewed Journal of Solid Rocket Technology, which the Chinese Society of Astronautics publishes.
To boost the power of supersonic bombers, the US Air Force briefly added boron to jet fuel in the 1950s. However, the project was shelved because the boron particles that ignited were difficult to manage and generated a layer of debris that gradually decreased engine performance, as per SCMP.
The US Navy funded a NASA study last year that suggested boron nitride nanotubes, which are formed of the elements boron and nitrogen, may be used to power hypersonic missiles that travel at speeds greater than 6,400 km/h (4,000 mph).
However, the majority of boron-powered engines are exclusively intended for use in the air. Since they react with water more readily than magnesium or aluminum, these metals are typically used as fuel to power supercavitation torpedoes.
But the team claimed to have created a ramjet engine driven by boron that could operate both above and below the water.
Their paper said that the major alteration is found in the fuel rods. It will have unique parts, including adjustable inlets and exhaust nozzles, to preserve the boron's burn efficiency in various settings.
Li's team has doubled the amount of boron in the fuel, and they predict that this will result in a greater thrust than that of aluminum in water.
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
