Yun Feng
Taiwanese hypersonic cruise missile with extended range capability.
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The Yun Feng, officially designated the Ching Tien (擎天), is a Taiwanese hypersonic land-attack cruise missile developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology. With a range of about 1200-2000 km, it is one of the few assets within Taiwan's arsenal which can reach targets in north and central People's Republic of China. The missile uses a ramjet engine with a solid rocket booster, capable of a hypersonic speed of Mach 6 or 2060 m/s, and carries a semi-armor piercing high explosive and fragmentation warhead. Development may have started as far back as the Lee Teng-hui administration, but official reports of its existence did not surface until 2012.
Design and development
The Yun Feng, officially designated the Ching Tien, is a missile developed by Taiwan's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology. Its range falls between 1,200 and 2,000 kilometers, and it uses a ramjet engine paired with a solid rocket booster to reach a hypersonic speed of Mach 6. The warhead is a semi-armor piercing high explosive and fragmentation type. Development may have started as early as the Lee Teng-hui administration, though the missile was not officially reported until 2012.
Test flights were hidden within the HF-3 supersonic anti-ship missile program. In 2016, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense denied rumors that the project was canceled as a goodwill gesture toward China. The missile's existence was first publicly confirmed by Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng in October 2021 during a Legislative Yuan committee hearing.
Variants
In 2018, NTD 12.4 billion was allocated under the "Qilin Project" to extend the missile's range and adapt it for satellite launch. Mass production of an enhanced variant began in August 2019, with an initial order for 20 missiles and 10 mobile launch vehicles.
This variant is described as a high altitude ramjet powered cruise missile. The missile is being upgraded to function as a satellite launch vehicle, capable of delivering satellites between 50 and 200 kg to a low Earth orbit of around 500 km. The upgrade program is suspected to extend the range to 2000 km.
More in National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Yun Feng (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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