Alleged Video has emerged showing what appears to be a PLAAF H-6N missile carrier aircraft carrying an air-launched Hypersonic missile during landing at Neixiang Afld.
In missile look similar to China’s ground-launched DF-17 hypersonic weapon, which uses a ballistic missile to boost an unpowered DF-ZF hypersonic boost-glide vehicle to a velocity well over Mach 5 before the vehicle continues on maneuvering path through the atmosphere to its target.
The H-6N is specifically designed to carry outsized loads, from high-speed drone aircraft to anti-ship ballistic missiles, as well as more traditional cruise missiles.
It is an advanced outgrowth of the H-6K, which itself is a fully reimagined and updated version of a design that tracks its lineage directly back to the Tu-16 Badger of Soviet origin.
Like the U.S., China has a number of hypersonic weapons programs underway and has tested many hypersonic vehicle shapes that could be leveraged for different weapons applications.