North Korea’s first hypersonic missile flight tested on Tuesday reportedly met key technical requirements set out by scientists, including launch stability, maneuverability and gliding flight characteristics of the “detached hypersonic gliding warhead.”
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) claimed the test-launch confirmed “the navigational control and stability of the missile,” the “guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead,” and the engine.
Hypersonic missiles usually fly at a speed of at least Mach 5 (more than 6,000 kmph) and the one that the North tested, Hwasong-8, is said to have flown at a speed of around Mach 3. It is known to have travelled less than 200km, although this remains to be confirmed.
A hypersonic glide vehicle is launched aboard a missile before it separates and approaches the target. The missile’s immense speed, coupled with the ability to change trajectory mid-flight, makes them harder to track and intercept than traditional projectiles. These missiles can strike targets from longer ranges within a shorter period of time, giving little time for enemies to respond. Depending on the design, they can be capable of carrying nuclear warheads or conventional only.
As it was the first test-launch, the missile’s flight range, altitude, speed and other features would be incomplete, but the North Koreans would have accomplished their intended goal if they were able to obtain data necessary to move on to the next stage in the development process, professor Kim Dong-yup of Kyungnam University’s Far East Institute told the agency.