China wants a strong military
It’s building hypersonic weapons
Including hypersonic bullets
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
I’ve told you before about how China’s been building
up its military capabilities by investing in hypersonic missiles.
Those missiles can go at over Mach 5,
or five times the speed of sound, while being maneuverable.
But if you think that sounds dangerous, guess what?
China also wants hypersonic bullets? Yes, bullets.
A recent study shows the Chinese military
is looking into how hypersonic bullets threaten the human body.
Uh, “threaten” the human body? That seems like an understatement.
Since we’re talking about leaving “large craterlike wounds in flesh.”
The military scientists in that study were just working with bullets that
go at hypersonic speed. Not maneuverable bullets.
But if Chinese scientists could curve bullets, I would be impressed…
That they’ve managed to steal technology from Angelina Jolie.
The bullets in the study were 5-millimeter steel bullets reaching a velocity of up to
13,000 feet per second.
That’s more than 11 times faster than the speed of sound.
The bullets were traveling so fast they were basically on fire.
The scientists tested the bullets by firing them at the thighs of sedated young male pigs.
According to researchers, the bullets and flesh turned into liquid and gas,
so they had to use fluid mechanics to describe what happened.
What happened was giant craters. “The shots did not immediately kill
the pigs, but shock waves from the bullets caused severe wounds throughout the body”
This included fractured bones and bleeding in the intestine, bladder, lung, and brain.
Remember, that was the result of pigs getting shot in the thigh.
And the pigs didn’t immediately die after getting shot. No they
were only euthanized 6 hours after the tests.
The Chinese military won’t stop these kinds of experiments anytime soon.
“The researchers in Chongqing said more animal experiments would be conducted
targeting ‘the head, chest, abdomen and other body parts with more complex structures’.”
So, more giant craters.
With experiments like this, China’s trying to make
hypersonic bullets a viable weapon. So how worried should we be? More after the break.
Welcome back.
China is experimenting with hypersonic bullets. And not just by shooting pigs.
It’s also investing in coilguns and railguns.
Coilguns and railguns do the same thing through slightly different mechanisms. A railgun has
two parallel conducting rails. A coilgun is made of a series of electromagnetic coils.
In theory, coilguns and railguns have
the potential to accelerate bullets to Mach 6 or greater.
One Chinese prototype is the rifle said to be developed by the Logistical Engineering
University of the People’s Liberation Army, one of China’s top military research institutions.
Not that I’m accusing my favorite state-run media
of getting something wrong, but that’s actually a coilgun and not a railgun.
The Global Times shared a video showcasing these weapons mounted on spinning robots.
Which is definitely very intimidating. Especially with the Fall Out Boy song they’re playing in the
background. Which I had to mute because of copyright. And because it’s not 2006.
They sure showed that balloon who’s boss. And that plywood. And that sheet of steel.
I see why they needed the Fall Out Boy song now. Obviously, China still needs some work on portable
rifles. Making portable weapons that can shoot bullets at hypersonic speeds is difficult.
But if it can be done, there could be benefits.
Russian defense contractor Lobaev Arms said it was developing a hypersonic
sniper rifle and ammunition that could accelerate a bullet to nearly Mach 6.
According to the company, “hypersonic bullets would enable the snipers
to maximize accuracy by minimizing the impact of external factors [such as wind,
gravity, and air density] by their drastically faster velocities.”
In theory, the hypersonic ammo can be fired up to seven kilometers, which is impressive
considering that conventional rifles have a range between one and two kilometers.
But there are a lot of drawbacks. “According to Russian special forces veteran Sergei Goncharov,
such a powerful rifle would make a lot of noise that would give away the sniper’s position. He
also noted that the recoil of such a rifle would be twice as powerful as standard sniper rifles.”
There are also questions of whether that type of rifle would be light enough to carry,
and whether the cartridges holding the ammo would be durable enough.
That’s because the cartridges would not be loaded with gunpowder,
but with chemicals instead. Gunpowder can’t propel hypersonic bullets.
But even if hypersonic rifles don’t work out, not to worry, China’s also
been experimenting with hypersonic projectiles at a much larger scale.
In 2018, China conducted the world’s first live open-sea test with a railgun
placed on a warship. The rail gun reportedly fired
a projectile at a velocity of over Mach 7 to hit a target 250 kilometers away.
This could be useful for intercepting enemy drones, missiles, or torpedoes.
China has also been experimenting with magnetized plasma artillery.
It tackles the age-old problem of getting weapons to shoot projectiles at very high
speeds without wearing down the barrel so easily.
Most barrels shooting hypersonic projectiles need to be replaced after a dozen or two shots.
But if scientists can fix this problem, China’s magnetized plasma artillery would be able to
shoot projectiles exceeding Mach 6. Some military analysts predict that this “would extend the range
of a conventional 155-millimeter self-propelled howitzer from 30-50 kilometers to 100 kilometers.”
Chinese media report that this concept has already been tested on certain tanks.
The US military has been experimenting with railguns for decades.
But last year, the US Navy ditched them to free up spending on hypersonic missiles.
There were a number of problems the US Navy faced. For one, the range for these kinds of guns is
about 110 miles. Which means, ships wouldn’t be able to use them unless they came within range
of enemy missiles. And its usefulness for missile defense is limited by the range and rate of fire.
Things like lasers and rapid-fire missile defense
systems would probably do a much better job instead.
But that hasn’t deterred other countries from at
least looking into railguns as a way to counter China’s hypersonic weapons.
But to really get an edge over China’s hypersonic
weapons technology, the US must at all costs protect
Angelina Jolie.
So, what do you think of China’s experiments with hypersonic bullets? Leave your comments below.
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.