The Chinese PLA has taken the unusual step of announcing the performance characteristics of a new hypersonic missile that it is bringing into service. The South China Morning Post reported overnight that the PLA had posted an article on the popular Chinese Weibo platform, announcing the performance characteristics of its YJ-21 anti-ship missile. Notable is that the PLA claims that the YJ-21 travels to the target at a velocity of Mach 6 but accelerates to Mach 10 before it strikes the target, making it impossible to defend against.
The public debut of the missile at a leading air show in November shows that “the Chinese navy has begun to establish a more destructive combat system in the offshore defense system, which has brought its denial combat capability to a higher level,” the article reads.
