Chinese researchers spy blind spots in US hypersonic ‘tracking layer’ ambitions

Team at PLA-affiliated institute says new American system would be an upgrade but network would need to be on bigger scale

Constellation would also need support from traditional satellites to see targets directly below it, they say

Reading Time:3 minutes

A massive network of satellites would be needed to track hypersonic weapons, according to a group of Chinese researchers at the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunication Technology. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 1:00am, 10 Aug 2021Updated: 2:37am, 10 Aug 2021

A global early warning system being built in the US to track hypersonic weapons will be an improvement on its existing system but have to overcome several big challenges to be effective, according to a study by Chinese military scientists.

Two defence contractors, SpaceX and L3Harris, won a bid in October to build the “tracking layer” system for the US Space Force.

If everything goes to plan, eight satellites designed to keep tabs on hypersonic missiles will be sent to near-Earth orbit of about 1,000km (620 miles) by early 2023.

According to the Chinese researchers, the number of satellites would have to increase tenfold to meet the minimum requirement of tracking an unfriendly object travelling at five times the speed of sound.

By comparison, the Global Positioning System uses just over 30 satellites.

But even with more than 100 satellites, the tracking layer programme would not be able to detect a hypersonic weapon, Xue Yonghong and colleagues with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunication Technology wrote in a peer-reviewed paper published in the domestic journal Infrared and Laser Engineering on Wednesday.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x