DF-21D: China built this missile to sink US Navy aircraft carriers

The History of the DF-21D

Beijing introduced the DF-21 in the early 1990s to replace the aging Dong Feng-2. Like many military systems China developed in the second half of the last century, the Dong Feng was the product of collaborative research and development with the Soviet Union. From manufacturing equipment and technical documentation to licensed production, many of China’s weapons were derived from Soviet designs. In fact, the Dong Feng was a licensed copy of the Soviet R-2 short-range ballistic missile.

When the DF-21D entered service in 1996, it became the world’s first-ever anti-ship ballistic missile. This carrier killer was Beijing’s premiere solid-fuel road-mobile missile, powered by a two-stage solid propellant motor. The weapon is able to deploy a 600-kilogram payload with a maximum range of 2,150 kilometers.

The DF-21A variant features a modified nose section and a launch weight of more than 15,000 kg. Two sub-variant types exist in the DF-21 family—land-attack and anti-ship missiles. The DF-21C is a conventional version of the series, able to deploy at a likely range of more than 2,000 km. The DF-21D is designed to strike ships at sea. Like its predecessors, the DF-21D’s warhead is likely maneuverable and accurate within 20 meters.

Is the DF-21 Really a “Carrier Killer?”

When F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35C Lightning II fighters launch from a U.S. aircraft carrier, they can travel around 500 miles away from the ship. Considering the DF-21D’s purported range, a U.S. carrier would have to be positioned more than 1,000 miles offshore in order not to risk destruction by the missile. If a DF-21 is launched, it could also be deployed with maritime intelligence capabilities, over-the-horizon radars, and other threat amplifiers.

A Congressional Research Service report published in 2020 outlined the growing threat these ballistic missiles present to U.S. interests in the South China Sea, warning that “China’s navy is viewed as posing a major challenge to the U.S. Navy’s ability to achieve and maintain wartime control of blue-water ocean areas in the Western Pacific—the first such challenge the U.S. Navy has faced since the end of the Cold War.”

In addition to threatening carriers in the sea, China’s ballistic missiles could also devastate U.S. facilities and assets positioned in Japan since the country is already within range of many of these deadly weapons.

A 2017 RAND report detailed this scenario:

“In 1996, the PLA was just beginning to develop conventionally armed ballistic missiles and had only a few dozen relatively inaccurate conventionally armed short-range missiles that could reach targets in Taiwan or Korea, but not U.S. bases in Japan. By 2015, however, the PLA’s [People’s Liberations Army’s] Second Artillery had deployed more than 1,200 conventionally armed ballistic missiles, including the DF-21C with the range to attack targets throughout Japan.”

As tensions in the South China Sea continue to escalate, a detailed understanding of the PLA’s true capabilities is necessary. While many of Beijing’s weapons and military systems have never been deployed in combat, the scope of their development in recent years is concerning.