anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)?
What the He!l is that?
Ballistic means that it isn’t guided, and since ships move about, it would need to be guided to hit a ship.
The missile is guided by a GPS and its fired from a land based launcher.It combines a manuverable warhead with a terminal guidance system.
China has also launched a series of satellites in the last several years to aid in the ASBM.
ASBM means the thing is shot from land, goes into space into orbit, then is terminally guided onto the target, which is a ship.
This route is cheaper than to for a PRC attack to come from a ship; subs are a different matter, sure, but at this early point it’s still risk for PLAN ships to take on a US battle fleet head-on. They see it as cheaper and less risk to take on a carrier using a missile from very long-range.
Advances in chinese optics, satellites, etc mean that hiding a US carrier anywhere is harder than it used to be.
Problem: If this missile were launched its likely to look like a nuclear strike against, say, the USA homeland. American forces would be in horror, then relief as they notice that the target was a carrier in a faraway theater, then again horror as they realized that a while US carrier had just disappeared.
US carriers do have defenses against this however, like SM-3, and others. Also some day that directed energy will provide solutions for this type of attack; what missile is faster than the speed of LIGHT? No missile, and not 10 at the same time.
But will Obama permit for the level of funding we’d need for DE weapons to get onto ships at the pace that is probably required?
No.
The Chinese intend to expel us from the Western pacific, and my prediction is that they will SUCCEED.
“Do you want to keep your carriers more than you want Taiwan still in your orbit...?”
That’s the question the PRC is asking us.
The Pershing II was a ballistic missile that included terminal guidance radar. That particular missile had a tactical nuclear warhead, although a much smaller yield compared to its immediate predecessor, the Pershing I. This was partly due to the more accurate guidance due to the terminal radar. The smaller warhead also resulted in longer range due to reduced throw weight.
Current technology (no telling what the Chinese stole, or bought from the Clintons) could make this even more feasible to fit using a conventional warhead.