DF-17

China's road-mobile DF-17 marries a medium-range ballistic missile booster to the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle — a maneuvering, low-altitude payload built to outwit missile defenses and hit fixed high-value targets at 1,800–2,500 km.

Overview

The DF-17 (Dong Feng-17), assigned the US designation CH-SS-22, is a road-mobile medium-range ballistic missile system fielded by the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force. Its distinguishing feature is the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) — a wedge-shaped, maneuvering payload that separates from the ballistic booster after ascent and glides through the upper atmosphere at speeds assessed between Mach 5 and Mach 10. The combination is designed to defeat layered missile defenses by flying a depressed, non-ballistic trajectory that evades mid-course intercept and compresses terminal warning times. The DF-17 entered operational service by 2019 and remains the only operationally fielded HGV system acknowledged by any nuclear-weapon state, according to CSIS Missile Threat.

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