China develops ability to intercept Inter-Continental Ballistic missiles

SHANGHAI (Web Desk) - China’s Science and Technology Daily magazine reports that China has now developed the capacity to intercept ICBMs.

It has published a report of China’s advances in laser technology, spearheaded by China’s top laser scientist Cheng Yong’s, which have enabled the interception by Chinese military, China Daily Mail reported.

The report says that Cheng Yong and his team have been making breakthroughs in strategic technology vital to the development of photoelectric equipment such as adjust-free laser, DLC film prepared by laser deposition and coherent combination of mutual injection, etc.

ICBM is a ballistic missile with a minimum range of more than 5,500 kilometers primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more nuclear warheads).

Cheng has tackled problems that even US experts find difficult, including making the world’s first adjustment-free solid laser.

In 2000, Cheng found that China’s infrared window, the eye of China’s large weapon for interception, was not hard enough to resist injury or chemically stable enough to resist erosion, and it became “blind” under hypersonic speed.

To remedy this, he spent four years developing DLC film prepared by laser deposition.

The film was used in China’s new ICBM defence missile to increase its speed by 30%. In 2011, the missile successfully passed a test to intercept an ICBM in mid-course.