‘Guam Express’ DF-26 missiles in service with PLA

The DF-26 missiles were first seen during a PLA parade in 2015. Photo: Xinhua

 

Carrier killer missiles are now operational along China’s coastal provinces and possibly on South China Sea atolls

China’s defense ministry confirmed on Thursday that high-tech DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles have been deployed with the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force.

The DF-26 is tailor-made for precision offensives as well as swift nuclear counter-attacks – with its nuclear-tipped variant – against land- and sea-based targets.

The new missiles, with a hit range of 3,000-4,000km, are also known as the “Guam Express” among Chinese military buffs. They are the PLA’s first conventionally-armed missiles capable of reaching the US outpost of Guam if fired from China’s southeastern coastline.

Global arms race won’t stop now: U.S. eyes potential foes working on new weaponry

It’s just basic human nature, but no one likes to look over their shoulder to see an eager competitor gaining on them no matter what the situation is, right?

Well, while we have the world’s finest, most powerful military, we have some potential enemies, “frenemies,” etc. who are trying to catch up to us with their development and deployment of cutting-edge military weapons.

There’s reason to be unsettled.

Has China been Practicing Preemptive Missile Strikes against U.S. Bases?

What a great time to have most of the U.S. carrier strike groups docked on the mainland… for China, that is.

Please see the source for more eerie satellite pictures, etc…

 

Fig. 10: Possible moored ship and naval facility targets, imagery dated August 2013. Compared for scale with actual U.S. destroyer.

You’ve probably heard that China’s military has developed a “carrier-killer” ballistic missile to threaten one of America’s premier power-projection tools, its unmatched fleet of aircraft carriers. Or perhaps you’ve read about China’s deployment of its own aircraft carrier to the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. But heavily defended moving targets like aircraft carriers would be a challenge to hit in open ocean, and were China’s own aircraft carrier (or even two or three like it) to venture into open water in anger, the U.S. submarine force would make short work of it. In reality, the greatest military threat to U.S. vital interests in Asia may be one that has received somewhat less attention: the growing capability of China’s missile forces to strike U.S. bases. This is a time of increasing tension, with China’s news organizations openly threatening war. U.S. leaders and policymakers should understand that a preemptive Chinese missile strike against the forward bases that underpin U.S. military power in the Western Pacific is a very real possibility, particularly if China believes its claimed core strategic interests are threatened in the course of a crisis and perceives that its attempts at deterrence have failed. Such a preemptive strike appears consistent with available information about China’s missile force doctrine, and the satellite imagery shown below points to what may be real-world efforts to practice its execution.

China’s successful new rocket launch signals breakthroughs in nation’s space weaponry: military experts

A Long March 7 rocket, China’s new model carrier rocket, blasts off in Hainan province on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

It was just one launch, but the successful maiden flight of a new-generation carrier rocket on Saturday pointed to a multitude of breakthroughs in Chinese space weaponry, according to military experts.

The Long March-7 lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the mainland’s southern-most Hainan province, carrying 13.5 tonnes of cargo – 90 per cent of which was taken up by the rocket’s special non-toxic fuel designed for multiple launch vehicles, plus wind-resistance devices, a re-entry capsule, a number of small satellites and other equipment.

For Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong, there were telling details in the Xinhua photos taken of the bullet-shaped re-entry module soon after it landed in the Badain Jaran Desert, in Inner Mongolia.

“The so-called re-entry capsule looks similar to China’s hypersonic glide vehicle DF-ZF,” Wong said.

Chinese supersonic ship killer makes U.S. Navy’s job harder

The USS Lassen guided-missile destroyer sails in the Pacific Ocean in November 2009. In a challenge to China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy sent the Lassen within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands built by China in waters near the Spratly islands Tuesday. | REUTERS

 

 

HONG KONG – Increased interactions between the Chinese and U.S. Navy in the contested South China Sea risk becoming more complicated by the increasingly sophisticated missiles being carried by submarines.

A new report to the U.S. Congress assessing a Chinese submarine-launched missile known as the YJ-18 highlights the danger, noting the missile accelerates to supersonic speed just before hitting its target, making it harder for a crew to defend their ship.

China shows off missile ‘able to destroy aircraft carriers’ at massive WW2 parade

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects the troops Photo: Xinhua/REX Shutterstock

 

Some 12,000 troops file past President Xi Jinping in Beijing, along with formations of tanks and armoured vehicles as warplanes screamed overhead.

China showed off a new missile reportedly capable of destroying an aircraft carrier on Thursday as it flexed its military muscle with a huge parade marking 70 years since the defeat of Japan in World War Two.

The parade, which was shunned by most Western leaders, witnessed 12,000 troops file past President Xi Jinping, along with formations of tanks and armoured vehicles as warplanes screamed overhead.

Hypersonic ‘Carrier Killer’: China Unveils Its Deadliest Ballistic Missiles

 

China’s newest and deadliest weapons, including the most lethal ICBM in Beijing’s arsenal and an aircraft carrier killer, could be spotted for the first time during a rehearsal for the military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

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But it was the hypersonic DF-21D, dubbed “carrier-killer,” that caught Kazianis’ attention. Go no further to get a taste of what the missile is capable of:

The DF-21D “slams down on its target – an oceangoing vessel like an aircraft carrier – at speeds of Mach 10 to Mach 12. Most sources suggest the missile holds the ability to attack naval vessels up to approximately 1,000 miles away, outranging by many times the strike range of all US aircraft aboard existing carriers,” the analyst wrote in an article titled “On Display: China’s Master Plan to Sink the US Navy.”

Russia Navy Developing ‘Carrier Killer’ Subs

Vladimir Putin ran for the Russian presidency in 2012 on the promise of rebuilding the Russian military. The Navy’s building program is part of Putin’s broader $356 billion military upgrade program, intended to run through 2020, according to the report.In 2013 new fourth-generation class submarines were deployed by Moscow: the Borei, which carries ballistic missiles capable of striking intercontinental targets, and the Yasen-class attack boat.  Both submarines are significant upgrades to previous, Soviet-era counterparts.

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Shlemov says the main purpose of one of the new submarines will be “to protect the groups of ballistic missile submarines and do battle with enemy submarines.”  He is describing what Western experts call attack submarines.

China to strike first in hypothetical war with Japan: expert

A hypothetical war between China and Japan started by Beijing would involve devastating cyberattacks, missile barrages and secret weapon DF-21D “carrier killer” missiles, according to a scenario outlined by defense and security blogger Kyle Mizokami in US magazine The National Interest.

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In such a scenario, Beijing would likely strike first. While China has not seriously prepared for a war against Japan, the People’s Liberation Army should have sufficiently analyzed Japan’s strengths and weaknesses to draw up a plan of attack on short notice. Mizokami envisions such a strategy to start off with a surprise attack from with PLA’s Second Artillery Corp using a “barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles” to “degrade Japan’s ability to defend itself.”

The situation grows more complex once the US actively involves itself defend Japan, but Mizokami believes the PLA has the firepower to deal enough damage to US forces to force Washington to “cut its losses, throw Japan under the bus, and sue for peace.”

Vietnam Buys Deadly New Missiles Capable of Hitting China

 

Hanoi is the first Southeast Asian nation arming its submarines with land attack cruise missiles.

Vietnam is in the process of acquiring 50 anti-ship and land attack 3M-14E Klub supersonic cruise missiles for its burgeoning fleet of SSK Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, Der Spiegel Online reports.

According to the article, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently updated data on its website, based on information obtained from the United Nations’ register of conventional arms, indicating that Russia has already delivered 28 missiles over the last two years to Hanoi, although the precise number remains unknown.

Chinese Missile Forces Pose Threat to U.S. in Future Conflict

ASPEN, Colo.—China’s advanced cruise and ballistic missiles pose a significant threat in future conflict with the United States, the chief of naval operations (CNO) warned last week.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the CNO, also said during a security conference Friday that China is building a second aircraft carrier that could be deployed in the not too distant future.

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Asked what Chinese weapons systems he is most concerned about if the United States went to war with China, Greenert noted Beijing’s growing arsenal of cruise and ballistic missiles.

“They have an extraordinary selection of cruise missiles, and a ballistic missile force that they developed,” Greenert told the Aspen Security Forum.

If the conflict were close to China, the missile forces would pose the most serious threat, he said.

“If it’s in their backyard, I’m a little worried about their ballistic missile [force] because of its reach,” Greenert said.

Chinese general tours U.S. carrier as maritime tensions fester

(Reuters) – A top Chinese general toured an American aircraft carrier on Tuesday at the start of a U.S. visit expected to expose tensions over territorial disputes between Beijing and U.S. allies in the South and East China Seas.

General Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, visited the nuclear-powered Ronald Reagan in San Diego, California, escorted by the head of the U.S. military’s Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear.

DF-21D missile could sink US aircraft carrier: report

The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s DF-21D anti-ship missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and has the capability to sink a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to the Hindu, an English-language Indian newspaper on Mar. 5, citing a recently published report.

Russia’s ‘carrier-killer’ Moskva enters Mediterranean

 

Russia’s Moskva missile cruiser, dubbed a “carrier-killer” by NATO, has passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and is now heading toward the eastern Mediterranean to assume command of the Russian naval force there.

The Russian Navy said in a statement that the Moskva cruiser passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on September 10.

Interfax news agency added that the Moskva cruiser, “commanded by Sergey Tronev, Captain 1st Rank of the Guards… has enough room for maneuver now.”

“The Black Sea flagship entered the Russian Navy’s area of responsibility in the Mediterranean at 11:00 pm Moscow time yesterday,” the agency reported a military source as saying.

China’s Emerging C4ISR Revolution

China’s military modernization has given rise to an enormous Western literature dissecting its scope and progress. Despite this boom, many analysts have paid relatively little attention to recent advances in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities.

The PLA’s growing complement of manned and unmanned aircraft, reconnaissance satellites, and sophisticated ground-based infrastructure comprises the operational foundation of China’s emerging network-centric military. It is also the means by which better-known systems, such as the DF-21D “carrier-killer” anti-ship ballistic missile or the J-20 stealth fighter, could actually fulfill their intended roles during a major regional contingency.