Posted on 08/05/2010 12:26:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas.
China may soon put an end to that.
U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China — an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
anyone else curious as to how much of the technology to build such a missile has been stolen or given to them via a Presidential approved technology waiver earlier on in the missile research&development programs run by the PRA?
I’m not sure why they need the Dong Feng 21D given the extent that we are in hock to them. I believe our vulnerable financial position alone will suffice to checkmate us should China decide to make any moves on Taiwan or S. Korea.
Here’s a list of possible suspects:
Bill Clinton.
Wasn’t LORAL involved as well?
You can thank Billy-boy Clinton and his administration for this development. Much of our technology was compromised during the time he was chasing quiff around the Oval Office. I went on a tour of China two years ago (I speak Mandarin thanks to the DLI at Monterey) and everyone I talked to just thought he was the best guy ever. They just loved Bill from Beijing to XiAn to Shanghai. Now I see why.
Don’t they figure that a conflict where the PRC was using missiles to attack US carrier battle groups would go nuclear real fast?
Yup.
Typical Chinese solution - a cheap, relatively easy, and dangerous.
These are balistic missiles. The US, and even the Russians, did not develop anti-ship ballistic missiles because their launch and trajectory can easily be mistaken for a nuclear missile launch.
Call me skeptical. Using a ballistic missile to track and hit a moving target seems like a task out of their reach. The weapon would need some sort of external source to update the trajectory.....perhaps a satellite, land based, or sea based system. In a conflict, that would be the weak point and the first thing to go.
Sounds like a few upgrades were made to the C-803 missile.
The answer is called the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3, aka SM-3:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-3
It already exists. Its is already sitting in the VLS cells of Aegis class cruisers and destroyers.
The USN has problems (not the least of which is Obama), but it ain’t stupid and this is old news.
The Obama presidency has already guaranteed that China will be more powerful.
Obama wets his pants and backs down... again.
I am sure the AP is hoping for that
Inertial guidance as a stand alone guidance system is pretty accurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21
The Dong-Feng 21 (DF-21; NATO reporting name CSS-5 - Dong-Feng literally means “East Wind”) is a two-stage, solid-propellant, single-warhead medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) developed by China Changfeng Mechanics and Electronics Technology Academy. Development started in the late 1960s, and was completed around 1985-86 but was not deployed until 1991. It was developed from the JL-1 missile launched from submarines and is China’s first solid-fuel land-based missile. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that China has 60-80 missiles, and 60 launchers.
Originally developed for strategic purposes, the DF-21’s later variants were designed for both nuclear and conventional missions. As well as a nuclear warhead of around 300kt, it is thought that high explosive, submunition and chemical warheads are also available. The latest DF-21D was said to be the world’s first and only anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). The DF-21 has also been developed into space launcher and anti-satellite/anti-missile weapon carrier.
DF-21D (CSS-5 Mod-4) Anti-ship ballistic missile
The US Department of Defense has stated that China is developing a conventionally-armed[9] high hypersonic[1] land-based anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) based on the DF-21,[10] with a range of up to 3,000 km (1,900 mi). This would be the world’s first and only ASBM and the world’s first weapons system capable of targeting a moving aircraft carrier strike group from long-range, land-based mobile launchers.[11][12] These would combine manoeuvrable reentry vehicles (MaRVs) with some kind of terminal guidance system. Such a missile may have been tested in 2005-6, and the launch of the Jianbing-5/YaoGan-1 and Jianbing-6/YaoGan-2 satellites would give the Chinese targeting information from SAR and visual imaging respectively. The upgrades would greatly enhance China’s ability to conduct sea-denial operations to prevent US carriers from intervention in the Taiwan Strait.[13]
China has recently launched a series of satellites to support its ASBM efforts:[citation needed]
* Yaogan-VII electro-optical satellite - 9 December 2009
* Yaogan-VIII synthetic aperture radar satellite - 14 December 2009
* Yaogan-IX Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) constellation (3 satellites in formation) - 5 March 2010.[14]
Development history.
http://www.sinodefence.com/strategic/missile/df21.asp
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