Chinese "Carrier killer"

[unixronin]

From USNI via military.com, discussion of a Chinese “carrier killer” anti-ship ballistic missile that can attack surface ships at 2000km range, with a time-to-target under 12 minutes.  As noted in the article, US Navy ships currently have no ballistic missile defenses.

“The Navy’s reaction is telling, because it essentially equals a radical change in direction based on information that has created a panic inside the bubble.  For a major military service to panic due to a new weapon system, clearly a mission kill weapon system, either suggests the threat is legitimate or the leadership of the Navy is legitimately unqualified.  There really aren’t many gray spaces in evaluating the reaction by the Navy…the data tends to support the legitimacy of the threat.”

(Hint: Read the dateline...)

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Highly debatable. AEGIS is meant to operate against conventional weapons. It doesn't really have high enough radar coverage to paint incoming re-entry vehicles, nor anything capable of reliably engaging one. They're too small, too fast, and coming in too steeply.

On the other hand, as noted above, a nuclear supercarrier is the ideal platform upon which to mount an ABM laser — or several — and they're nearing operational readiness.