(by Pasquale PREZIOSA) At the 2017 Dubai air show, China showed many of its aerospace products: the Chinese stand was one of the biggest and most attractive.
Many aeronautical products had many similarities to the western ones of the latest generation, others had a more original appearance, however the perceived message was "great investment in the aerospace field".
Among these investments, the hypersonic, the last frontier of the future, did not appear clearly.
The hypersonic problem derives in part from the US superiority in the field of anti-missile defense which, in fact, reduces the missile deterrence expressed by the individual country.
Between 2014 and 2016, China has conducted seven experiments on Hypersonic Gliding Vehicles (HGV-Hypersonic Glide Vehicles).
In November 2017 China experimented, with a missile DF-17 from 1800-2000 kilometers, derived from the 16, the new HGV system that could be operational in the Chinese armed forces starting from 2025.
Russia and the United States, although investing resources in the hypersonic, have not yet reached the technological maturity of the products to foresee an operational use.
This is the new challenge launched by China to compete against the American anti-missile system.