China displays its cruise missiles in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing during the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II in September last year. (Photo : Getty Images)
China is planning to develop the next generation cruise missiles based on a modular design, enabling them to adapt to specific battle situations and with a high level of artificial intelligence, the country's senior missile designer said.
In an exclusive interview with China Daily on Thursday, Aug. 18, Wang Changqing, director of the General Design Department of the Third Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, said that the modular design is a good solution to the future warfare's need for cost-effective and flexible weapons.
A large family cruise missile has been developed by Wang's department for the Chinese military, the report said.
"We plan to adopt a 'plug and play' approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions and their specific requirements," Wang said during the 2016 Hiwing Forum in Beijing. The forum focused on artificial intelligence and unmanned equipment.
"Moreover, our future cruise missiles will have a very high level of artificial intelligence and automation," the director added. "They will allow commanders to control them in a real-time manner, or to use a fire-and-forget mode, or even to add more tasks to in-flight missiles."
Wang said that China is in the forefront of advanced missile design and development as Chinese engineers have been researching on the use of artificial intelligence in missiles for many years.
The world's missile developers, however, knew about the modular design. At the Paris Air Show last year, as the European missile developer and manufacturer MBDA displayed its CVW102 Flexis modular missile concept, which will allow missiles to be configured.
The Beijing Hiwing Scientific and Technological Information Institute, an institution that researches on aerodynamic missiles and unmanned systems, published a report on advanced missiles which said that the CVW102 Flexis is designed for an aircraft carrier strike group, in which missiles can be selected and assembled with different warheads, engines and guidance devices based on target information.
The modular missile system is multifunctional and flexible, according to a senior researcher at the institute. For manufacturers, it would help reduce the cost of manufacturing and storage and for the military, it can prolong the range and duration of a mission.
"It is a promising approach in terms of the design of next-generation missiles, but we should also consider its technological complexity and production costs," the researcher said.
According to Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, a modular missile is appropriate for striking targets on the ground or at sea and its destructive capacity, flight mode and range, can also be changed.
"However, engineers will have to make sure such a missile can be assembled within a very short period of time. Otherwise, the best time to engage the target will be missed," he said.
