Did the Celestial Empire succeed in what the USSR could not do?
According to military analysts, in the very near future, China may begin the deployment of land-based DF-21 ballistic missiles in an anti-ship version, capable of striking moving sea targets. It is assumed that the use of such ballistic missiles will allow the destruction of aircraft carriers, despite the presence of a variety of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems on aircraft carrier strike groups.
This will help the Celestial Empire to significantly increase the influence of its fleet in the naval theater of operations adjacent to the PRC coast, create a serious threat (at least in this theater of operations) to the American Navy, whose power is based primarily on "floating airfields."
Problems remained
By the way, the history of the use of missile weapons to combat enemy ships does not begin in the last century, but much earlier. And here our compatriots have shown themselves to be innovators. It is known that in 1834-1838 the Russian military and inventor AA Shilder worked on the possibility of using combat missiles in the Navy and proposed to launch them from submarines. The construction of a riveted metal submarine designed by Schilder began in March and was completed in May 1834 in St. Petersburg at the Alexandrovsky Foundry. It was precisely intended for delivering blows with powder rockets at enemy ships at anchor, as well as at enemy squadrons following through the straits.
The very first studies and experiments with guided ballistic missiles, which could be used to solve anti-ship missions, were carried out in the Soviet Union in the 60s and 70s, in general, for the same reason why the Chinese are doing this today. But then our R-27K rocket was only in trial operation and was not put into service.
However, the times have changed, but the problems remain. At the same time, according to foreign experts, modern technologies make it possible to create a ballistic missile warhead with a radar guidance system or an infrared system to ensure the destruction of large moving targets such as an aircraft carrier or other warship of large displacement.
Today ahead of the whole planet
The press, relying on information from American intelligence and the assumptions of Pentagon analysts, reported that anti-ship weapons of a fundamentally new class are possibly being developed in the Middle Kingdom. According to The United States Naval Institute, a non-governmental organization - Ed. Note), information about these weapons was published in one of the Chinese specialized publications, which American military experts consider to be a fairly reliable source. Then a translation and a more detailed description of the missile system appeared on the naval portal Information Dissemination.
We are talking about ballistic missiles designed to destroy surface ships, primarily aircraft carriers. The new armament received the symbol Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM). It is assumed that its development is based on the DF-21 medium-range missile (Dong Feng 21, another designation CSS-5) with a firing range of about 1,500 kilometers.
The ballistic missile system (DBK) with the DF-21 "Dongfeng-21" strategic missile began to enter service with the People's Liberation Army of China in 1991. Now the mobile small-sized two-stage Dongfeng-21A is replacing the Dongfeng-3 at the Jianshui, Tonghua, and Liansiwang missile bases, where about 50 such ballistic missiles are deployed. From here, they are capable of hitting targets located in North India, in the territory of the Central Asian states, as well as Vietnam and other countries of Southeast Asia. On the basis of the DF-21 missile, a new medium-range DF-21X missile is being created, capable of flying 3000 kilometers, on which GPS technology is supposed to be used to improve the accuracy of hits in the control system. The development will take about ten years, the power of the warhead on the rocket should be 90 kilotons.
The ASBM is equipped with a sophisticated guidance system with a radar homing head and target selection at the end of the trajectory, which probably resembles the control system installed on the American Pershing II ballistic missile. However, as you know, in the late 1980s, these missiles were removed from service by the US Army and destroyed under the treaty on the elimination of intermediate and shorter-range missiles. At the same time, the Pershing II homing system was intended to destroy ground-based well-protected targets with an accuracy of up to 30 meters, and the guidance was carried out in comparison with the reference radar image of the terrain. Such accuracy made us think about the security of our command posts.
In the proposed radar homing system of the Chinese ASBM missile, mobile sea targets such as a large warship and an aircraft carrier were selected as the main targets. And such a task is no less difficult than that assigned to the Pershing II ballistic missile. Therefore, most likely, the missile homing system based on the DF-21 is more similar to the homing heads (radar sightings) of cruise anti-ship missiles, especially since, as already mentioned, some of them have a high supersonic speed, commensurate with the flight speed of a medium-range ballistic missile warhead … Aeroballistic missiles AGM-69 SRAM (USA) and X-15 (Russia) are examples of medium-range air-to-surface missiles with INS. The anti-ship variant of the Kh-15S was equipped with a radar homing head (RLGSN) in the final phase of the flight.
However, back to the Chinese ASBM ballistic anti-ship missile. According to experts, the appearance of such weapons can significantly increase the security of mainland China from sea areas. By fending off the threat of enemy surface formations appearing at its borders, the ASBM is capable of radically changing the nature of hostilities in the coastal seas, and at the same time the development prospects and existing programs for the construction of aircraft carriers.
Is there no alternative?
The last statement is controversial, since a long research and development search for reliable means of dealing with aircraft carrier strike forces of the United States back in the Soviet Union did not lead to significant results. And a successful alternative to the concept that the main enemy of the aircraft carrier - the aircraft carrier, apparently, has not been found so far. Moreover, great attention was paid to the solution of this problem in the USSR Navy, it was the second most important after the strategic task - the delivery of a nuclear strike on the coastal targets of a potential enemy and the destruction of his SSBN. According to a number of experts, for our forces operating in the World Ocean and over its expanses, the fight against American aircraft carriers was in the first place. For this, in addition to submarines with cruise missiles, missile cruisers and naval missile-carrying aviation, long-range aviation was involved.
According to news agencies, ASBM can fly about 1800-2000 kilometers. The rocket covers this distance in 12 minutes. In mid-2011, the Chinese newspaper China Daily published a short story based on comments from the PLA Chief of Staff, Chen Bingde. The note stated that the firing range of the anti-ship ballistic missile DF-21D, based on "revolutionary technologies", is 2,700 kilometers.
This will allow the Chinese military to control areas of possible confrontation between Beijing and Washington, associated with disagreements over the future fate of the island nation in Taiwan.
According to analysts, thanks to the energy capabilities and dimensions of the two-stage fifteen-ton missile, it will be able to carry a warhead (about 500 kilograms in non-nuclear equipment) of sufficient power to cause serious damage to large surface ships, including aircraft carriers. Some experts suggest that the ASBM is capable of sinking even the largest American aircraft carrier from the first hit. By the way, the standard version of the DF-21 rocket is equipped with a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead.
There is an assumption that the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile will be guided to the target using satellites, radar systems, or receive information about the target from unmanned aerial vehicles. However, it is known that the Celestial Empire does not have its own fully functional satellite navigation system. As of December 2, 2011, the KRNS "Northern Bucket" ("Big Dipper") BeiDou-2 had six of the 30 satellites it needed, and BeiDou-1 consists of three satellites. There is, of course, nothing to rely on American GPS in the event of a conflict with the United States (and no other country has an aircraft carrier fleet, for the destruction of which such powerful weapons are required), of course, there is nothing. At the same time, China can use the Russian space navigation system GLONASS, which has been noticeably growing and pushed on the international market recently, or its Beidou.
It is now known that China is developing a new over-the-horizon radar station that will be able to detect large ships such as aircraft carriers at a distance of up to three thousand kilometers and use this data to send missiles. Similar radars were used in the USA and the USSR to detect heavy bombers and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Currently, over-the-horizon radars of various modifications are in service with Russia, the United States, China and Australia. Later modifications of such stations were focused on solving the problem of controlling the surface situation.
Here you can recall the coastal over-the-horizon surface wave radar (BZGR) "Podsolnukh-E" of short-wave radio wave range, which is intended for use in coastal systems for monitoring surface and air conditions within a 200-mile economic zone of the coastal state. It was created at the Russian OJSC NPK NIIDAR.
New Chinese-made radar stations can presumably be used to combat US Navy aircraft carriers in conjunction with DF-21 anti-ship missiles.
Probably, the ASBM anti-ship ballistic missile has low visibility (stealth technology) for the radar and has an increased level of maneuverability, making the flight trajectory unpredictable for the enemy. According to the American military department, the tests of the "aircraft carrier killers" could have been carried out as early as 2005-2006.
It remains not entirely clear how much the anti-ship version of the Chinese DF-21 missile, if it actually exists, and is not just another "duck", has advanced in the ability to defeat moving sea targets. It is also unknown whether Chinese scientists and designers were able to create a small-sized seeker (GOS) with unique characteristics for a ballistic missile warhead, as well as a control system for the warhead's maneuvers at the commands of this GOS.
Already in the early 80s, to defeat aircraft carrier and large amphibious formations of a potential enemy on the approaches to the shores of the European part of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries on the basis of the 15Zh45 medium-range ballistic missile of the Pioneer mobile complex and the target designation systems of the Navy MKRTs "Legend" and MRSTs " Success”The Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering (MIT) was working on the coastal reconnaissance and strike system (RUS). Work on this system was stopped in the mid-1980s due to the high costs of creating and in connection with negotiations on the elimination of medium-range missiles. And in terms of class, the Chinese anti-ship analogue corresponds to this development.
And what will happen next with anti-ship ballistic missiles, time will tell …
