A team of scientists in China believe they've found a way to make hypersonic missiles more potent — by extending their range via "skipping" on the atmosphere.
The researchers from the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center say the method would involve a hypersonic glide vehicle repeatedly boosting upward and then falling at the edge of Earth's atmosphere as it travels to its target.
The technique is called skip-gliding, where the vehicle flies to the edge of space and then bounces off the denser upper layers of Earth's atmosphere like a stone skipping on water.
That would potentially increase the range of a hypersonic missile by up to 34% and its flight time by 28%, according to their simulations, which were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Astronautics' June issue.
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Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on their research on Thursday, writing that it could herald the use of hypersonic missiles moving from "regional conflict to global operation."
The Chinese scientists, led by principal author Yong Enmi, said their work was inspired in part by the Silbervogel space plane envisioned by aerospace engineers under Nazi Germany and the US Air Force's Dyna-Soar project in the 1950s.
Both planes were designed to cover vast distances at high speeds using skip-gliding, but neither was ever built.
Yong's team said that their computer simulations showed China's hypersonic missiles could travel at speeds of up to Mach 20 and, after an hour of flight, still maintain a velocity of Mach 7 as they skip on the atmosphere.
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Most hypersonic missiles are understood to follow a far different flight trajectory. They're typically launched high into the sky, sometimes to low space, and glide toward their target before re-entering the atmosphere to strike.
When China tested a version that could circumnavigate the globe in 2021, the US was stunned. Washington appeared to have been caught off guard by how quickly Beijing had developed the technology, and worried that it would spell trouble for missile defense systems.
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A full Chinese hypersonic arsenal with an extended range would have serious military implications, Jennifer Kavanagh, director of Military Analysis at Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, told Business Insider.
It would mean that the People's Liberation Army can launch these weapons from far inside China and still strike deep into American territory, potentially in the Pacific Ocean or even Hawaii or the US mainland, Kavanagh said.
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"It will be easier for the PLA to protect — and harder for the United States to find and target — missile systems based deep inside China than those that must be positioned along the coast," she said.
Skip-gliding missiles may also be harder to track and intercept, she added.
But this research only involved simulations and not actual missile tests, Kavanagh said. Even if China were able to translate this into a practical weapon, it would likely be expensive and complicated to produce.
"Theory and practice can be very different when it comes to missile ranges," said Kavanagh.
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Hypersonic missiles are especially difficult to maneuver as they get faster, and they tend to heat up quickly at top speeds.
Kavanagh noted that a future skip-gliding missile would likely still be detectable from hundreds of miles away.
David Kearn, an associate professor of Government and Politics at St. John's University, noted some concern in the Biden administration about China fitting hypersonic missiles with nuclear warheads.
"Some experts have speculated that HGVs have the potential for a 'fractional orbital bombardment' capability that could create a decapitation threat to US leadership," said Kearn, who researches missiles and nuclear weapons.
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Kearn believes the issue is being overblown since China has the ability to launch nuclear strikes regardless of its hypersonic missiles.
As for skip-gliding's impact on how well Chinese missiles might hold up against US defense from a capability standpoint, Kearn doesn't see much of a difference.
"Since existing hypersonic glide vehicles systems already provide the capability to defeat US ballistic missile defenses, it's not clear what the 'skipping stone' trajectory would add," he added.
Yong's team said their research showed that skip-gliding offered more advantages for hypersonic missiles, but admitted that they had only looked into the flight time, speed, and stress on the missile.
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Their next step, they said, would be to research how easily a skip-gliding missile can maneuver and navigate laterally.
