Name : Qiulong
Alternate Names : Flying Dragon
Code Name : IM-A1
Type : Inter Continental Ballistic Missile
Class : Strategic Light Weight ICBM
Available Warhead Type : GHS Mod 1, GHS Mod 2, GHS Mod 3
Length: 18 m
Diameter: 2 m
Weight: 25 tonnes
Guidance: Stellar-INS/GNSS-3
Range: 12,000 km
Speed : Mach 1.7 (Boost Phase), Mach 24 (Terminal Phase)
Launch Platform : SMLT, TEL, Silo
CEP : 70 meters
Launch method: Cold Launch
Initial Propulsion : 3x ESRB-1
Propulsion: AGSRE-1 (First Stage), HRE-1 (Second and Third Stage)
Decoys: S-2 Mylar Decoy, IRCS Fake Dud

Introduction

Qiulong is the direct development of a new class of ICBM done by Haishan's Aerospace Institute with cooperation of Hahao Kinematics Institute. The concept first evolved from theoretical application of ramjets into exo-atmospheric conditions which seek to reduce the cost and weight associated by common ICBMs, that include on reducing launch times of such strategic weapons to ensure fast reaction time on support or strategic attack on hostiles. The missile is the brainchild of Dr. Taka with cooperation of Flight Engineer Tokyrev upon exposure on new propulsion technologies pertaining to military aviation during their collaborative visit on R&D department of Haishan's Third Research Institute. Work begun on the earnest on summer of 1983 with initial grant of one billion hikans after Dr.Taka submitted his proposal to the research institute.

Contrary to popular belief, the missile was not developed by Haishan's Aerospace Institute and Hahao Kinematics Institute till a Project Demonstrator was finally made and shown to work reliably. Dr. Taka and Flight Engineer Tokyrev worked on the initial prototypes of the missile that resulted in several models till the fourth model, EXM-203 was chosen to be the fully fledged Project Demonstrator to be shown to Haishan's Aerospace Institute and Hahao Kinematics Institute for further funding and development. The EXM-203 flew on the spring of 1990 for fifty seconds before it crashed on the Haishan's Blue Ocean. This failure almost terminated the contract between Dr. Taka and the Haishan's Aerospace Institute if not the help of Sashan Vidin that was intrigued by the missile concept. With the green light given by Sashan Vidin for the development of the ultra light weight ICBM, work on the missile begun again on the winter of 1995 that result in EXM-205. The prototype missile was shown to perform reliably thus was used as a reference model of the Qiulong. The end prototype then officially named as Qiulong on the year of 2002.

Material Construction

The missile body is constructed using carbon composite intermixed with host metal of aluminum matrix while the GHS warhead designs utilizes 100% reinforced carbon composite construction. Critical components incorporate silicon carbide ceramic into their material structure to resist high temperatures which are found mainly on the supersonic airflow intake duct for the air-augmented solid rocket engine and areas near the exhaust of Qiulong's stages. Usage of these new ultra-light and strong materials allow the missile to be more lighter when compared to similar ICBM material designs, allowing Qiulong to have reduced weight thus reducing amount of propellant needed at cost of lower throw weight and damage potential.

Propulsion

The light weight ICBM uses two types of rocket engine for its propulsion which is Air-auGmented-Solid-Rocket-Engine-1 (AGSRE-1) and Hybrid Rocket Engine-1 (HRE-1). HRE-1 was developed off from the Callistor Mod 0 hybrid rocket engine used in Triton Super Cavitation torpedo thus carry similar characteristics in exception that HRE-1 uses a more energetic fuel. AGSRE-1 was developed on combining rocketry technologies with ramjet propulsion; the engine is essentially a ramjet that uses solid rocket fuel. When the engine is firstly started, the solid fuel will be ignited and generate enough thrust in order to induce supersonic airflow in the engine's air intake ducts. Upon reaching Mach 1.6, the supersonic air flow then will be induced to react with the fuel-rich exhaust of the engine, causing the ICBM to go faster.

The AGSRE-1 uses a specific solid rocket engine fuel design that consist of ADN intermixed with nano-particularized aluminum. The HRE-1 uses nitrogen tetraoxide as the oxidizer and HTPB (Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene component) mixed with trace amount of China-Lake [2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (HNIW) or simply known as CL-20 ] 20 as the high energetic fuel. The CL-20 component is incorporated in the HTPB fuel structure in a form of a co-crystals which crystals were made by mixing the CL-20 with TNT structure in order to reduce shock sensitivity which crystals are geometrically built into the fuel design. As similar in the Callistor Mod 0 hybrid rocket engine design, the HRE-1 uses a bidirectional-vortex oxidizer injection method to ensure axially uniform regression rate of the solid fuel. All stages in the Qiulong missile uses a toroidal aerospike nozzle design(in exception the support solid rocket boosters) for better performance than standard bell shaped nozzles and its efficiency is further improved by venting portion of the exhaust into the cone of the nozzle.

In order to get the missile to suitable starting speed for its air-augmented solid rocket engine, a support solid booster stage(called as ESRB-1) is used which is affixed to the sides of the ICBM. The Qiulong missile normally uses three of such boosters which solid rocket fuel is made of ADN intermixed with CL-20+TNT cocrystals with HTPB base while using expansion-deflection nozzle design, allowing the booster stage to be relatively small. To further increase the starting height of the ICBM, more boosters could be added to the missile, allowing some slight flexibility on its start up height.

Avionics

Qiulong carries several avionics, mainly upgraded Olonea Communication Node and coupled with Haku Positioning System. The newly upgraded Olonea Communication Node factored in on receiving Ao-Shun GNSS of Haishan, and as well compatibility for GPS or GLONASS based signals while being more compact and sturdy at a cost of having no VHF array at all. The Haku Positioning System uses data feed from the upgraded Olonea in conjunction of its three sets of compact laser-based doppler radar for altimeter and atmospheric gasses analysis calculation routine. Other avionics that make up the Haku are four Jiyra laser fiber ring gyroscopes. The same system is responsible to estimate the distance of the ICBM from the ground in order to make flight path corrections (if necessary) and control the maneuvering systems of Qiulong.

Maneuvering

Maneuvering of the Qiulong is done by several important components, mainly the main flaps and rotatable thrust vectoring nozzles. For major direction change, the main aerodynamic flaps lined on the outside of the missile serve to change the airflow across the missile body thus changing direction whilst the rotatable exhaust nozzles are designed in a way so that the vector of the effluent exhaust of Qiulong stages can be controlled thus supplementing the major movement of the flaps. These exhaust nozzles are primarily connected to Haku Positioning System, allowing fine adjustment to the vector of the exhaust of the ICBM. The second and third stage have restartable and controllable thrust, allowing further maneuverability and tactical options.

Warhead

GHS warhead bus family serve as the payload of the ICBM, which warheads were created exclusively by Hahao Kinematics Institute. Essentially all warhead bus of the GHS family consist of three basic components; decoy system, maneuvering system and the warhead itself. The decoy system of all GHS series deploy a number of inflatable mylar ballons during middle flight phase and fake IRCS duds in order to confuse enemy missile detection radars. The mylar balloons are usually deployed during middle flight phase and the special IRCS duds are deployed during terminal phase. The IRCS or its long name of Increased Radar Cross Section dud is a specially crafted small inert warhead designed materially to exhibit a large RCS to enemy sensors, similar in purpose of the mylar balloons with advantage of capable being used in terminal phase.

Maneuvering system of the GHS warhead bus composed of two major components, the effectors (flaps) and ISMC-1 subsystem. ISMC-1 subsystem is responsible to control the effectors of the warhead bus. It's composed of an integrated communication module (compatible with GPS/GLONASS/Ao Shun GNSS), several liquid type gyroscopes for inertial navigation and a stellar navigation subsystem. To further ensure effectiveness of the GHS warhead bus, it's usually delta shaped, allowing the warhead bus to glide relatively far.

Common warhead of the GHS warhead bus is a triple stage nuclear bomb constructed in a delta shaped maneuverable re-entry vehicle; the nuclear warheads uses same maneuvering system of the warhead bus itself in exception that they do not have the stellar guidance and inertial navigation system and hooked up to a small solid rocket engine respectively for further maneuverability. The nuclear bomb is commonly known as N10 is composed of three major components; a large spherical main multi layered nuclear charge, the smaller spherical nuclear charge and the tritium gas supply unit. The main nuclear charge layers are arranged as followed in innards direction, 1. A high explosive lens made of CL-20 intermixed with TNT and binded together with Viton-A 2. A plutonium-gallium alloy core 3. An internal pit where tritium gas would collate. For the smaller charge, the explosive lens is replaced with an enriched uranium tamper while clad with gold layer to increase neutron reflectivity and an additional lithium-hydride substance that fills the pit found on the main charge.

All of these nuclear charges are supported in place with a hard foam and cased in graphite-osmium alloy with inner layer of beryllium. All warheads of the GHS family are top heavy, the main nuclear charge lies close to the cone of the warhead. The GHS Mod 1 carries around three 200 kt nuclear warhead, five mylar balloon decoys and ten IRCS fake duds. GHS Mod 2 serve as the heavy weight warhead bus of Qiulong; it carries four 250 kt nuclear warhead and ten IRCS fake duds. GHS Mod 3 serve as the spam warhead bus for Qiulong; it carries around six 150kt nuclear warhead, ten mylar balloon decoys and twelve IRCS fake duds.

Sources

Reference Missile Design Source
Air-Augmented Rocket Design Reference Source
Hybrid Rocket Engine Reference
MIRV Design Source
MIRV Design Source 2
MaMIRV Source
CL-20 Source
CL-20 Source 2
Cocrystal Source
Reference Design
Reference Engine Design

Credit to Lamoni for the reference ICBM design.