One of China’s most advanced hypersonic missiles, the DF-27 – a weapon that could strike all major US bases in the Asia-Pacific – has been in service for more than four years, a military source has said.
The intermediate-range ballistic missile has never been officially unveiled, but it featured in video footage from an unknown source that circulated on the country’s tightly controlled social media last August ahead of a series of major war games around Taiwan.
However, the source said the hypersonic glide missile had entered service some time before 2019,and had been purposely kept under wraps after its predecessor, the DF-17, took centre stage during that year’s National Day military parade in Beijing.
“The DF-27 had been in service in the rocket force before 2019, but the PLA did not want to disclose such a ‘trump card’ so early,” said the source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.
“As one of the powerful weapons targeting Guam like the inferior DF-26, the DF-27 was designed to carry different warheads, a single HGV [hypersonic glide vehicle] or multiple warheads when it needs to hit different targets.”
The source said the missile had features in common with the DF-17 – which has a range of 1,500km (930 miles) and can travel at five times the speed of sound – and the DF-21D, an “aircraft carrier killer” that can carry multiple warheads and has a range of 1,800km.
The Pentagon first referred to the DF-27 in its 2021 annual report, which said it had a range of between 5,000 to 8,000km – enough to strike Hawaii from the Chinese mainland.
The missile also featured in a series of US intelligence documents that were leaked earlier this year. The documents said the People’s Liberation Army had carried out a successful DF-27 test on February 25 and concluded there was a “high probability” it could penetrate US missile defence systems.
