This seems like big news: the Chinese appear to have leaked (through a Chinese blog!) info that they have developed a long-range ballistic missile which is accurate and powerful enough to find, hit and sink an aircraft carrier with one strike. This is a huge upgrade in ASM range (2000 km/1240 miles), speed (Mach 10, which, depending on altitude can be almost as high as 7,500 miles per hour) and unprecedented accuracy which enables it to hit a moving ship from space.
Link here:
https://www.usni.org/forthemedia/ChineseKillWeapon.asp Original article here, with some good technical analysis:
http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2009/03/plan-asbm-development.htmlThe originating Chinese blog (for you Chinese-character readers):
http://blog.huanqiu.com/?uid-6885-action-viewspace-itemid-2009 This is news because this is the first ASBM (anti-ship ballistic missile). That means it is launched like a space rocket into low space and then plunges back down into earth's atmosphere to strike its target. Until now, all ASM (anti-ship missiles) have been low-level weapons with a relatively small payload, such as the
Exocet which the Argentines used to sink the British destroyer
Sheffield in the 1982 Falklands War. Until this Chinese ABSM, the ASMs were not launched into space, and instead traveled just above sea level until hitting it's target near the waterline. The advantage of a ballistic anti-ship missile is its speed to target, and the great difficulty in stopping it. This is magnified, according to the article, by Chinese improvements in control of the missile, which means they can "dodge and feint", making it even harder to target and kill.
This new Chinese weapon(Wiki here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21) is a modified Dong Feng ("East Wind") 21, or DF-21. For decades the DF-21 has been used as the delivery system for a Chinese 300-kiloton nuclear warhead. It is 35 feet long, 5 feet wide, and can pack enough conventional high-explosive that a strike from one DF-21 missile would almost certainly blow an aircraft carrier out of the water - a hit is a guaranteed sinking. Advances in control and targeting, which include not only onboard systems, but satellite assistance and manned and unmanned air and sea targeting vehicles, mean that the missile can be maneuvered and still hit its moving target.
This development is significant to US, NATO and Western security for several reasons. Although the Chinese have masterfully "puffed" the ability of their weapons systems for decades, in recent years they have become much more circumspect. It is believed now that when the Chinese leak information about a weapon, it is far past the developmental stage, and may be nearing time for implementation.
Also, this should be considered in light of the much more aggressive stance which China has taken in the past year or so, not only in government statements and speeches, but in military incidents with US ships and aircraft. Recently there have been two such incidents. The Chinese are clearly flexing their muscles. This leak is to tell the US that its carriers will not be safe in the China Sea.
Finally, and this is the big kicker, with the advances in targeting and guidance of the improved DF-21, I am reminded of how the Clinton Administration breached US law and permitted highly sensitive computer components to be sold to the Chinese in the mid-1990s. I specifically recall at the time many military and intelligence figures were terrified that these components were going to the Chinese because of how easily they could be used for
significant improvements in Chinese missile technology, specifically in guidance systems. Well, well.
But that was when the Clintons, with their eyes wide open, ignored warnings from all their intel chiefs (except Deutsch, whom the Chinese bought off) permitted Chinese intelligence agents to penetrate and participate in their campaign fundraising and fundraising for the Clinton Library. The great shame of all this is that the Clintons opened their arms to Chinese intelligence agents Charlie Trie, John Huang and Johnny Chung, who passed untold amounts of money from Chinese Army Intelligence into the Democratic National Committee and the Clintons' campaigns. The money was cheerfully provided by Colonel Liu of the People's Republic of China Army Intelligence, because it bought face time and immediate access to the donors. And the Chinese wound up getting the very computer components which are almost certainly the ones which now guide the DF-21. And millions upon millions of untraceable dollars, almost certainly provided by Chinese Intel, have gone into the "Clinton Library", money over which there is virtually no accounting oversight. Meaning that Chinese cash is at this moment in the pockets of a former US president...and the current Secretary of State. And that money bought for the Chinese the ability to destroy US aircraft carriers with one quick, unstoppable blow.
You just can't write this stuff.
