The DF-17 missile is carried on a 10x10 military truck chassis. The missile is carried over the top of the vehicle and is erected in a vertical position to conduct firing operations.

The DF-17 is a solid-fueled medium-range ballistic missile mounted on the DF-ZF Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV). The missile is capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads with ranges up to 2,000 km and more, achieving speeds of Mach 5, the threshold to qualify an object as hypersonic. According to U.S. intelligence, the DF-17 missile could reach a distance between 1,800 to 2,500 km. The DF-17 missile consists of two main elements including the launch vehicle and an HGV. The HGV is mounted on top of the launch vehicle, which is used to boost the HGV along the initial part of its trajectory, before performing a maneuver that will then enable the HGV to begin the glide phase of its trajectory, occurring in the upper atmosphere). The missile has a length of around 11 m and weighs around 15,000 kg. It has a Circular Error Probable of several meters.
While slower than a conventional ballistic reentry vehicle, HGVs’ higher maneuverability and lower-altitude flight make them harder to track and predict their flight path, challenging legacy ballistic missile defense systems Boost-glide weapons like the DF-17 are designed to boost to exoatmospheric altitudes with the aid of a ballistic missile booster before pulling down into the earth’s atmosphere where they might leverage aerodynamic drag at high altitudes to fly at low trajectories on the way to their targets.