The Chinese military has apparently test-fired their most advanced shipborne hypersonic missile – dubbed YJ-21 or ‘Eagle Strike-21’ – ahead of the Chinese Navy’s 73rd anniversary celebrations, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday.
A short video clip that has surfaced on social media shows what appears to be the YJ-21 missile being launched from China’s Type 055 warship – the Chinese Navy’s largest and most advanced destroyer, according to the SCMP.
Few details about the missile are available so far. Citing Chinese defense experts, the SCMP has reported that it might have a range of between 1,000 to 1,500 kilometers (621 to 932 miles) and is designed to target aircraft carrier strike groups.
“The ship-borne YJ-21 missile, which has a range up to 1,000km, is able to hit any vessel in an aircraft carrier strike group,” a Beijing-based naval analyst, Li Jie, told the SCMP. The Type 055 destroyers have up to 112 vertical launch missile cells, the paper added.