My bad, I thought Wu-14 was a testbed for hypersonic airbreathing technology, something like Boeing X-51. So Wu-14 is simply a glide weapon? Then what is so special about it? How is it superior to the Sagarika's BGRV?
Correct me again if I am wrong but I am not sure if Wu-14 has the ability to conduct S-maneuvers in the azimuth plane, which the BGRV can do.
I can’t comment on BGRV as there is no public information about it except the claims from Indian scientists and internet fanboys. The problem with Shaurya is that it is a short-range missile, not sure if it can provide necessary height and speed for gliding vehicle, Russia/China/US tested on ICBM.
According to Americans, Wu-14 showed “extreme manoeuvrer” in its tests. But for this kind of weapon, the focus is “controllable manoeuvring”, that some breakthrough in communication and controlling in ionization blackout. We don’t know how far WU-14 has progressed. But, by checking Russian similar weapon YU-71, I don’t think that we can see this kind of weapon entering service in 10 years.
BTW, if Wu-14 is not the Chinese testbed for hypersonic airbreathing technology, then what is? Is there another program for this?
Yes, they do have. It was reported that Chinese tested a drone with scramjet engine in 2015. Early this year, the Chinese scientists claimed there will be a test of prototype combined-cycle hypersonic engine later this year. The problem is: we only know they are working on it but nothing in details.
