US Aircraft Carrier Groups Maybe Sitting Ducks: (Chinese)PLA cruise missiles are real threat to US carriers

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PLA cruise missiles are real threat to US carriers

China launches a C-602 anti-ship cruise missile. (Photo/PLA Navy)

Most military experts consider China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile a major threat to US carriers operating in the Western Pacific, but Zachary Keck, the associate editor of the Tokyo-based Diplomat, has gone further to suggest that the cruise missile is a “real carrier killer.”

Citing a new report from the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, Keck said that a key element of the People’s Liberation Army’s investment in anti-access/area-denial capabilities is the development and deployment of large numbers of highly accurate anti-ship cruise missiles and land-attack cruise missiles on a range of ground, air, and naval platforms.

The report also detailed several advantages of cruise missile against US carriers, with the authors noting that cruise missiles can be launched from land, sea or air-based platforms. Their compact size and limited support requirements allows them to be highly mobile and thus highly survivable when launched from ground-based platforms. With low infrared signature, the authors also stated that it is easier for the cruise missiles to escape detection from enemy missile defense systems.

“The potentially supersonic speed, small radar signature, and very low altitude flight profile of cruise missiles stress air defense systems and airborne surveillance and tracking radars, increasing the likelihood that they will successfully penetrate defenses,” the report said.

Meanwhile, China is able to produce cruise missiles cheaply, and the country will be able to stockpile large quantities of them, according to Keck, who cited the report’s conclusion that that PLA may be able exploit a quantity over quality approach against the US.

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