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How would an Aegis Destroyer handle 24 SunBurn missiles coming at it at a 'ripple pattern' at the same time when all it takes to sink or cripple the ship is one and a half sunburns? The reason i am saying 24 is because a 3-pack Chinese gunboat squad operating from base can launch 8 missiles each simultaneously (from a maximum range of 250km) and the missiles would assume the ripple flight pattern and i really do not see how a ship could tackle 4 sunburns let alone 24.

You're making some incredibly questionable assumptions here. First assumption is that the ChiComs can salvo off 24 Sunburns at once--they only have a few ships that can shoot the thing, after all, and they only have a total of 48 missiles in inventory, and CANNOT afford to fire them at 250km range, as any track will NOT be confirmed as valid. But we'll assume the ChiComs are stupid.

One scenario: Chinese lob their entire load of Sunburns, to discover that they blew away some inexpensive decoys that radiated SPY-1 signals and had corner reflectors installed. No need for defensive fires.

Chinese forces are now effectively disarmed and can be sunk at leisure.

Another scenario: US 688I puts a torpedo into the ChiCom Sunburn platform. Dubya calls whichever idiot's in charge in Beijing and says, "Gosh, your sailors oughta be more careful handling explosives!"

Third scenario: Aegis goes into full-auto mode on detection of high-speed, constant-bearing, decreasing-range targets. (and with CEC, targets will be detected as soon as they come off of the launchers.) Standard Block IV missiles reach out and engage missiles while they are still over the horizon from the targeted ship, guided by sensors that have a good view of the missiles. Director limits on the Aegis ship do not apply in this scenario. Missiles get splashed long before they get to target.

After some thought i concur that i was oushing the performance envelop of the missiles the Chinese (especially the quantity they have) to the max! I doubt the Chinese would emply a 'hail Mary' tactic like launching half their current stock of missiles at a single ship.

Thus i guess i was kind of assuming the Chinese smoked some opium and blew their wad foolishly!

However that leaves the question as to why the Clinton adm. was pushing for the cancelletion of the Vandal? I know the usual reply on FR (which may be true) is that the dudewas a Chinese-figurehead ....and the actions of Clinton do seem traitorous! However was there any valid reason for him to try to get rid of the Vandal?