Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Threat Requires Navy, Space Force Cooperation

The U.S. Navy views China’s ASBM capabilities with great concern. The United States has been able to project power all over the world with carrier strike groups (CSG) – an aircraft carrier with layered defenses. CSGs are more secure than land bases – it’s harder to destroy something that moves – and would allow aircraft to hit hundreds of targets daily for months. 

China’s military considers its ASBMs “trump cards” against the U.S. Navy’s ability to deploy its ships off the Chinese coast,accordingto Andrew S. Erickson, a scholar of Chinese military strategy who taught at the U.S. Naval War College.

“I’m not going to get [into] much more detail of what we know and don’t know about it. But they’re pouring a lot of money into the ability to basically rim their coast in the South China Sea with anti-ship missile capability. It’s a destabilizing effort in the South China Sea, in the East China Sea, all those areas. When their claims of some of these contested islands – they’re militarizing those areas,” Vice Adm. Jeffrey Trussler,deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare,saidat a virtual event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. “It’s something that confuses the international order and concerns the allies in the region. It’s one reason we work to keep the global commons open and the free flow of traffic.”

ASBMs are a greater threat compared to conventional anti-ship missiles and can be launched from well outside the100 nautical milemaximum range of the SPY-1 Aegis radars. These radars are mounted on fleet escorts like the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The DF-21Dhas a rangeof 1,300 miles while the DF-26 has a range of 2,400 miles[MW1]. This gives them the ability to launch a surprise attack that could make it harder to defend the fleet against.

These weapons can be fired from mobile launchers. Experience from the 1991 Persian Gulf Warshowedthat finding mobile missile launchers to destroy them can be among the most challenging things to do in a combat situation because they can move and can be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack..

The U.S. Navy currently has 48 Aegis-equipped vessels capable of fielding the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMD) that could intercept missiles and protect U.S. carriers and other warships. That number is projected to increase to 65 by 2025, and seven Japanese destroyers also have the BMD system. This system proved its worth during a November test. A Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) on the destroyer USS John Finn successfully intercepted an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) that had been launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. However, serious upgrades of their capability to negate China’s ASBM advantages are needed. 

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