China has achieved “initial operational capability” on the Dong Feng 21D missile system – a weapon that could be launched from shore, to take out large, slow-moving ships.
The DF-21D evolved from a submarine-launched ballistic missile, and has a variant that can carry nuclear warheads. The system uses satellites to lock on to its targets – China already had two suitable satellites in orbit, and launched a third last August, according to the Strategypage.com website. The missile switches to infrared targeting on final approach. It can hit even the most advanced modern carrier from a distance of over 900 miles, if it lives up to its design specifications. Some analysts think that range could be doubled with a smaller payload, which would still be adequate to damage the carrier and suspend flight operations.
The existence of a land-based missile that can kill aircraft carriers would radically alter the strategic picture in theaters like Taiwan or North Korea, since it would severely compromise America’s ability to project air power. Taking out a carrier is an extremely difficult proposition, as her battle group controls the sea in a tremendous radius around her, complete with extensive anti-submarine defenses. A forest of carrier-killing missiles growing on enemy shorelines would be a real game-changer, if China decides the time has come for sudden reunification with a certain “renegade province” in the western Pacific. The only imaginable threat to “regional peace and stability” that would end up on the wrong end of the DF-21D is the same one Western liberals worry about.
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