Asian Security: As Korea festers, our friends in Beijing have deployed near Taiwan a powerful missile designed to take out U.S. aircraft carriers as Beijing strengthens its ability to prevent U.S. forces from aiding Taiwan.
When North Korea announced the 1953 Armistice was considered null and void and threatened renewed missile tests, the U.S. rushed naval assets to the region, including two destroyers equipped with the Aegis anti-missile defense system. We presumably would do so if things heated up between Beijing and its claimed “lost province,” Taiwan.
That option became increasingly problematical when news of China’s deployment of an anti-ship ballistic missile near Taiwan came in written testimony by the Pentagon’s head of intelligence, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, delivered to a Senate committee on Thursday.
The missile, designated the DF-21D, is one of a “growing number of conventionally armed” new weapons China is deploying to the region, adding to more than 1,200 short-range missiles opposite the island democracy, Flynn, the Defense Intelligence Agency director, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Dong Feng-21D is intended to give China “the capability to attack large ships, particularly aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific,” the Pentagon’s 2012 China report said. The report cites estimates that the missile’s range exceeds 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).
The land-based missile is designed to target and track aircraft carrier groups with the help of satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and over-the-horizon radar. Launched into space, the DF21D re-enters the atmosphere, maneuvering at 10 times the speed of sound towards its target.
Critics argue that this move only shows the vulnerability and obsolescence of the aircraft carrier in the missile era while others say our missile defense capabilities can handle the new threat. Certainly these floating air bases are no more vulnerable than fixed bases that cannot be moved to where they might be needed.
As its military, its economy and its ambitions grow, so too has Chinese assertiveness about control of the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea, and the larger East China Sea. Chinese military doctrine refers to establishing dominance over what it calls the “first island chain,” which encompasses the East China Sea.
Beijing has also long declared the South China Sea to be its territorial waters and has laid claim to two disputed island chains, the Paracel Islands about 200 miles from the coast of Vietnam, and the Spratly Islands in the southeastern part of the South China Sea.
Defense analysts have called the weapon a “game-changer,” as have we. It’s one that could force U.S. carrier battle groups to keep their distance and away from areas of Chinese interest or territorial claims.
A recent article posted on Xinhuanet, the website of China’s official news agency, paints a graphic picture of the sinking of the carrier George Washington in a scenario where it is dispatched to defend Taiwan.
The article describes three Dong Feng salvos, the first piercing the hull, starting fires, and shutting down flight operations.
The second salvo would knock out the ship’s propulsion and the third would “send the George Washington to the bottom of the sea.”
This brings into play a possible nightmare scenario of renewed hostilities on the Korean peninsula, including missile attacks on U.S. and Japanese targets, during which China decides to press its grievance over Taiwan. The potential of the DF-21D in the mix gives defense planners nightmares.
Since World War II, every president alerted to a crisis has asked the same question: Where are the carriers?
These floating air bases the size of small towns are visible signs of American power — that we mean business — and are able to project that power deep within a potential enemy’s territory.
Where are the carriers? Right now, amidst budget cuts and a rapidly growing Chinese military and naval presence, they are in Beijing’s crosshairs.
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