High-tech missiles made in China threaten American aircraft carriers (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy)

24 May 2010 2

Strategic confrontation between the United States and China also takes place on the technological front. The introduction of new weapons by Beijing potentially reduces or even completely negates the leadership of American aircraft carriers. This leadership was established at the end of the Second World War as an armament system allowing for global control.

Anxiety in the Pentagon. Officially announced a new threat from China, Admiral Robert Willard, commander of the Pacific fleet. In a speech to Congress on March 23 this year, he expressed concern that China is developing and testing a medium-range ballistic homing missile with an ASBM non-nuclear warhead (a ballistic missile for hitting ships) specifically designed to strike at American aircraft carriers.

The range of 2 is thousands of kilometers. It seems to be about the D version of the Dong Feng – 21 ballistic missile, which has a range of up to 2000 kilometers, which is enough to control the South China Sea, which could in principle become a theater of operations between Washington and Beijing, especially in the case of conflict about control of taiwan.

US Navy in the Asian sector of the Pacific. American aircraft carriers have so far been the most important strategic barrier against Chinese threats to Taipei and against the expansion of the water area controlled by China, which in recent years has transformed its fleet from coastal to ocean. Increasingly, Chinese ships are approaching the Japanese shores and are reaching the Indian Ocean using bases provided by Burma. A new submarine base, built on Hainan Island, followed closely by American spy ships, led to an arms race at sea in all southeast Asian countries.

Beijing is thinking about aircraft carriers. China intends to have aircraft carriers in the future and for many years has been studying this type of ship “Varyag”, acquired in Russia. But for many years Beijing will not be able to resist American supremacy at sea. The US has 11 aircraft carriers with a total displacement of thousands of tons in 100, five of them are in the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, the creation of ballistic missiles against ships supplied with conventional warheads of high explosive force instead of nuclear ones undermines the existing balance of power, and in the future will reduce the value of aircraft carriers.

China's advanced technology. According to the statement of Andrea Tani, who prepared a report on this topic for the network magazine “Defense Analysis”, the Chinese have installed on the Dong Feng D missiles an autopilot system that can hit moving targets, such as aircraft carriers, whose detection is guaranteed by observation satellites and coastal radars. which is very large. They are already in the Chinese coastal zone. “Today, they are already 38, and in 2014 will be 65, 11 of which will be used on the sea. On March 5, three Yaogan IX satellites were launched from the Zhuchuan test site, which are directly connected to the ASBM program. They seem to be an exact copy of the American satellites White Cloud NOSS, and, perhaps, they are. The satellites are equipped with general-purpose radars and infrared sensors for detecting ships, as well as electronic devices for intercepting and analyzing signals coming from them in order to more accurately determine their coordinates, ”writes Tani.

Ultra fast rockets. High speed missiles, 8 times the speed of sound, makes it difficult to intercept the systems of air defense and missile defense of aircraft carriers and their tracking, and the launch of a large number of shells can block the protection system. An aircraft carrier struck by one or two ballistic missiles may not sink, but will certainly lose combat effectiveness. It would be premature to assess the real operational qualities of ASBM missiles, but the very news of their development confirms the seriousness of Beijing’s strategic challenge. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Washington to maintain its military superiority in the world, let alone the risk that these technologies will be at the disposal of other states possessing ballistic missiles, such as Iran and North Korea.