China has developed a hypersonic weapon capable of striking aircraft thousands of kilometers away, Bloomberg reported on the 24th local time.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese military has developed a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) capable of launching air-to-air weapons.

A hypersonic glide vehicle is a warhead launched atop a missile that flies at hypersonic speeds in the upper atmosphere and can maneuver toward targets.

It is characterized by its ability to change trajectory during flight, making it difficult to intercept.

Bloomberg projected that such weapons could pose a severe threat to U.S. air operations in the event of an armed conflict between the United States and China.

This is because aerial refueling tankers, airborne early warning and control aircraft, and airborne command and control planes operate far from combat zones, yet could fall within the range of long-range weapons.

The hypersonic glide vehicle launched from China's Dongfeng (DF)-17 missile is estimated to have a flight range of approximately 2,414 kilometers.

This falls just short of the distance from the Chinese mainland to Guam, a major U.S. military hub in the Western Pacific.

Another advanced missile, the DF-27, is estimated to have a maximum range of about 8,000 kilometers, putting Hawaii within its reach.

The U.S. Department of Defense estimated as of 2024 that China possesses at least 3,150 ballistic missiles.

The China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), affiliated with the U.S. Air Force, also analyzed in a report this year that "China's missile modernization focuses on the capability to deliver systematic strikes against an enemy's operational systems."

However, Bloomberg pointed out that using ballistic missile-based weapons to intercept distant aircraft is costly and technically risky.

This is because it can take more than 20 minutes for a ballistic missile to fly to its maximum range, requiring extremely accurate target data, and the "kill chain" transmitting information from long-range sensors to the missile is long, making it vulnerable to enemy jamming.

The new service also noted that ballistic missile launches could be mistaken for nuclear attacks, carrying the risk of unintended escalation during a large-scale conflict.

(Photo: Captured from China Central Television (CCTV), Yonhap News)