New hypersonic missiles could evade Taiwan's Patriot batteries during future invasion
Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/19
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
DF-17 on parade in Beijing. (PLA photo)
On Sunday (Oct. 18), the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba Group, cited an anonymous military source as saying that China's most advanced hypersonic missile, the DF-17, is being deployed to People's Liberation Army (PLA) bases in the provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, which sit right across from Taiwan. The deployment of the missiles is part of a PLA pattern of a beefing up of its forces along the coast of China in what some analysts are saying are preparations for an invasion of Taiwan.
According to the unnamed source, "The DF-17 hypersonic missile will gradually replace the old DF-11s and DF-15s that were deployed in the southeast region for decades." The source added that, “The new missile has a longer range and is able to hit targets more accurately.”
The DF-17 is a solid-fueled road-mobile medium-range ballistic missile that delivers a hypersonic glide vehicle with a range of 2,500 kilometers. It is feared that Taiwan’s Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air missile system may have difficulty intercepting the missile due to its ability to suddenly change direction, possibly at speeds of between Mach 5 and 10.
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