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Report: Chinese Develop Special "Kill Weapon" to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers
U. S. Naval Institute ^ | 3/31/09

Posted on 03/31/2009 9:55:05 AM PDT by Evil Slayer

With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.

After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.

First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.

The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.

The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.

Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.

Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.

(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aircraftcarriers; china; chinathreat; killweapon; tm
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To: dragnet2

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we are extending preferential trade status to a country that is working on ways to militarily attack us.


41 posted on 03/31/2009 10:09:58 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money -- Thatcher)
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To: cripplecreek
“Wonder how much of our tecnology we gave to them to make it for us.”

Substitute “The Clintons” for we.

42 posted on 03/31/2009 10:10:32 AM PDT by Cheetahcat (Osamabama the Wright kind of Racist!)
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To: sam_paine

It wouldn’t be necessary to use a nuke to take out the Three Gorges Dam; two or three well-placed cruise missiles with bunker-buster warheads would do the trick, I would think. Or we could fire 10 or more just to be sure...


43 posted on 03/31/2009 10:10:49 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored
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To: Evil Slayer

Corrected link (not a secure website, http:// not https:// ):

http://www.usni.org/forthemedia/ChineseKillWeapon.asp

From the article:

“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.”


44 posted on 03/31/2009 10:11:01 AM PDT by RebelTex (Freedom is everyone's right, and everyone's responsibility.)
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To: theFIRMbss

I’m thinking the Chinese would suffer a loss of millions of people a lot better than we would.


45 posted on 03/31/2009 10:11:21 AM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport and school records.)
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To: snarks_when_bored
Do they really think that we couldn't hit the Three Gorges Dam?

Do you really believe the Teleprompter in Chief would give that order?

46 posted on 03/31/2009 10:11:56 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: sionnsar

I’m pretty sure 0bama won’t be in office long enough to witness such a scenrio...unless he makes himself “President for Life”...


47 posted on 03/31/2009 10:12:29 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored
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To: Evil Slayer

I thought the 3M-54 Klub (SS-N-27 Sizzler) was their ‘carrier killer.’


48 posted on 03/31/2009 10:12:54 AM PDT by Sax
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To: snarks_when_bored

scenario!


49 posted on 03/31/2009 10:12:53 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored
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To: Evil Slayer

I thought the 3M-54 Klub (SS-N-27 Sizzler) was their ‘carrier killer.’


50 posted on 03/31/2009 10:12:56 AM PDT by Sax
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To: agere_contra
Steerable mach 10 hypersonic missiles, yeah one of those would be a problem.

So would a coordinated multi-pronged attack by General Zod and his malignant Krypton horde.

51 posted on 03/31/2009 10:13:08 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: Petronski
>It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes
>>Uh, sorry. I don't believe it

Maybe it's built on
left-over Brilliant Pebbles
development work.

If the "missile" just
has to fall down from orbit
it can hit high speeds...

52 posted on 03/31/2009 10:13:20 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: PapaBear3625
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we are extending preferential trade status to a country that is working on ways to militarily attack us.

Unfortunately you'll notice that people are desperately clinging to the fantasy that it all ended with the election of George Bush. The reality is that it continued and likely expanded over the past 8 years.
53 posted on 03/31/2009 10:16:58 AM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: Evil Slayer

Good thing Obama wants to kill missile defense. Since the only way to defeat a military the size of China’s is a nuclear exchange, we sure wouldn’t want to be able to survive it.


54 posted on 03/31/2009 10:16:58 AM PDT by Trod Upon (Obama: Making the Carter malaise look good. Misery Index in 3...2...1)
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To: liege

“I agree with you but one must remember who is the Commander in Chief these days. Would he have the guts to use a nuke?”

Given a continuous communization of the US and desecration of the Constitution, the possibility of a future military insurrection in the US is not out of the question, IMO.


55 posted on 03/31/2009 10:17:10 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: nathanbedford
Mach 10? Probably not, unless it's still in the science fantasy stage of design. A ship-killing ballistic missile? Been there, done that. Somebody's doing some serious hyperventilating here, IMHO. If the Chinese weren't working on a long-range ballistic missile I'd be shocked.
56 posted on 03/31/2009 10:18:50 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: MeanWestTexan

I do wonder if, perhaps with the exclusion of submarines, the days of naval warfare are coming to a close. Ships are just too big, too easy to find, and too slow. Will future wars be fought mainly in the air and space?


57 posted on 03/31/2009 10:20:06 AM PDT by kc8ukw
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To: Non-Sequitur
A 2000 km range means at least an hour in flight

At mach 10 ?? 7 kmph?? hardly. They claim 12 minutes.

And we are converting Boomers to carry Seals and standard missiles. whoopy

58 posted on 03/31/2009 10:20:08 AM PDT by Vinnie (You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Jihads You)
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To: Evil Slayer

It is called a submarine.


59 posted on 03/31/2009 10:20:22 AM PDT by bmwcyle (American voters can fix this world if they would just wake up.)
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To: Evil Slayer
2 words for the chi-coms:
Arleigh Burke

2 more:
Standard Missile

We shot at, and hit, a freakin' junk satellite outside the atmosphere.
Is this new missile a threat? Of course.
Is it a threat that we cannot handle? Is it a game-changer? No.

And finally, one of the great quotes of all time:
ADM Arleigh Burke, 1991 (Regarding the USS Arleigh Burke)
This ship is built to fight. You had better know how.

60 posted on 03/31/2009 10:20:23 AM PDT by BlueNgold (... Feed the tree!)
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