China: Success Claimed in Test of Weapons-Delivery System
The New York Times, January 15, 2014
China’s Defense Ministry said that it had successfully tested a glider that can travel many times the speed of sound, following a report in the online Washington Free Beacon. Such systems, lobbed high into the atmosphere and then guided down to a distant target, can be used to carry conventional or nuclear weapons past missile defense systems, which are designed to intercept slower missiles at lower altitudes or intercontinental ballistic missiles in space. The ministry said the system was not aimed at any specific country and gave no indication of whether China would deploy armed gliders.
A version of this brief appears in print on January 16, 2014, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: China: Success Claimed in Test Of Weapons-Delivery System.
