The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has confirmed reports that it has conducted a fourth test of China's ultra-high-speed hypersonic glide vehicle for nuclear delivery called the WU-14, Bill Gertz, senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon, wrote in an article published on June 11.
According to the article, China conducted the test on June 7, which was the fourth in the series of tests on the WU-14 in the past 18 months.
The WU-14 was believed to be on PLA's high-priority list for development, the U.S. intelligence said.
The first WU-14 test reportedly took place on Jan. 9, 2014, followed by two more tests on Aug. 7 and Dec. 2. The report said that all four tests have been conducted at the same facility in western China.
The article quoted a U.S. intelligence official as saying that the latest test showed the WU-14's ability and "extreme maneuvers" to penetrate U.S. missile defense systems, for the first time.
The official said that the WU-14 was allegedly designed to neutralize U.S. strategic missile defenses and has the unique capability to fly at ultra-high speeds and maneuver to avoid detection and tracking by radar and missile defense interceptors.
The Missile Defense Agency of the Pentagon, however, refused to make any comment on the development of the WU-14, although a U.S. congressional report published in November last year said that China's hypersonic glide vehicles cannot only make U.S. missile defense system less effective but also render it obsolete.
Gertz said that in addition to the WU-14, the Chinese government is also developing a second hypersonic weapon using scramjet engine technology.