China tests CM‑401 missile from bomber, expanding Pacific war reach

In China, a test was conducted to launch the ballistic missile CM-401. The weapon was launched not from a ground launcher but from under the fuselage of the strategic bomber H-6K. This solution provides China with a new asset in a potential war in the Pacific.

The CM-401 missile is part of the B-611 missile family, work which began in China in the 1990s. The finished B-611 was first presented in 2004, and its further development resulted in several dozen solid-fuel ballistic missile variants with a range of 90-400 kilometres.

The CM-401 is a land-launched anti-ship missile that moves at hypersonic speed, as its creators assure. The missile has a range of about 280 kilometres, and in the final phase of flight, it activates its radar, allowing it to target and hit its target precisely.

Although the CM-401 was developed as a ground-launch missile, its latest test proves it can also be used as an aerial weapon.

Why are the Chinese testing such a solution? The idea of using a modified ground-to-ground missile as an air weapon could have been copied from the Russians, who have built the Ch-47M2 Kindzhal missiles, carried by a modified interceptor aircraft, specifically the heavy interceptor aircraft, the MiG-31K plane.

However, the Chinese used a completely different aircraft for the carrier role—a large, slow, and easy-to-detect and destroy strategic bomber. The H-6K is another variant of the Xi'an H-6 model, a Chinese variant of the Russian aircraft Tu-16 developed in the 1950s.

A key benefit of such a solution is probably a significant increase in the missile's range. Instead of the probable range estimated at 280 kilometres, a CM-401 launched from an aircraft will be able to strike a target over 2,000 kilometres away (the operating radius of the aircraft is estimated at about 1,800 kilometres).