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Old 11-17-2020, 04:56 AM
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Exclamation Chinese Ballistic Missiles Fired Into South China Sea Claimed to Hit Target Ship

Chinese Ballistic Missiles Fired Into South China Sea Claimed to Hit Target Ship
By: Steven Stashwick - The Diplomat News - 11-17-20
Re: https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/chin...t-target-ship/

A news report claims that the August ASBM tests successfully hit a moving vessel and did not just fall into the sea.

Photo link: https://thediplomat.com/wp-content/u...20-11-17-3.jpg
USS Nimitz (CVN 68) steams alongside the Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) in the South China Sea, July 6, 2020.

In August, China launched several anti-ship ballistic missiles into the South China Sea. Now sources close to the Chinese military claim that the missiles did not simply fall into the sea but successfully hit a moving target ship.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) first reported that DF-21D and DF-26B anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from separate sites on August 26 and travelled thousands of kilometers before splashing down in the South China Sea somewhere between the Paracel Islands and Hainan Island. The Pentagon later confirmed that China tested ballistic missiles that landed near the Paracel Islands during exercises that week but offered no details about the launch.

The DF-21D is believed to have a range of about 1,500 kilometers and U.S. Department of Defense reported that the anti-ship variant reached an early capability in 2010. The missile was dubbed the “carrier killer” for possibly being able to hit U.S. aircraft carriers far out to sea.

The DF-26B has a much longer range of around 4,000 kilometers, leading some to call it the “Guam Express” because it could theoretically target U.S. military bases on the island of Guam.

Now the SCMP says that those missiles successfully struck a maneuvering vessel at sea according to remarks made by a former senior Chinese officer, Wang Xiangsui, who now works as a professor in Beijing.

Over the summer the launches were interpreted as a message to the United States after a U.S. spy plane overflew Chinese naval exercises in the Bohai Sea the day before. Chinese officials complained that the flight disrupted its naval drills.

That summer saw intense activity in the South China Sea from both the U.S. Navy and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. Two U.S. carrier groups operated together in the South China Sea in July at least twice, in a rare concentration of U.S. naval power, and individual carrier groups operated in and around the sea throughout the summer. China conducted extensive naval drills of its own in the South China Sea in July and August.

Wang implied that the test was linked to the spy plane flight and in particular the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier group in the South China Sea nearly two weeks before that. SCMP reports that Wang said that “…several days later [after the aircraft carrier maneuvers], we launched the DF-21 and DF-26, and the missiles hit a vessel sailing south of the Paracel Islands. Shortly after that, an American military attaché in Geneva complained [to us] and said it would lead to severe consequences if the missiles hit an American aircraft carrier. They see this as a show of force. But we are doing this because of their provocation.”

Official Chinese outlets have not confirmed whether the missiles did in fact hit a moving target. Given how high-profile the weapons are and their importance to the PLA’s ability to deter the U.S. Navy from operating close to China’s shores, if the tests were successful it would be unusual to keep their results secret.

Despite the alignment of events, it is questionable whether China could safely organize and conduct a complex missile test on a couple weeks’ notice to respond to the U.S. aircraft carrier’s arrival in mid-August. It may be more likely that the test had been planned for some time and the U.S. carrier’s presence was coincidental, if predictable. China published the target area that the missiles landed in on August 21 to warn ships and aircraft to avoid the area, less than a week after the carrier arrived, and five days before the missiles were tested.

The Pentagon estimates that China has more than 150 medium-range ballistic missiles like the DF-21 and more than 200 intermediate-range ballistic missiles like the DF-26. It is not reported how many of these missiles are variants that can hit moving naval targets. China is known to be improving satellite and long-range radar systems to boost its ability to target ships at sea, but it is unclear how effectively or at what ranges the DF-21 and DF-26 can reliably hit a moving vessel.

About this writer: Steven Stashwick is an independent writer and researcher based in New York City focused on East Asian security and maritime issues.

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Personal note: The Games Afoot as Holmes would say. China is showing the US that this is a warning and that their missiles can take their ships out. Not sure where our ship was with respects to their target ship but someone or some satellite would have picked up this missle had it been fired in water's where our ships are located? These types of messages are to impress upon the US and its allias that they have said weapons to knock out our ships. To the contrary it was not fired at one of ours or we surely would've knocked it out of the sky - if not - we would've had a total retalitaion from the US and NATO. These are deadly games and China will make a mistake someday that will cost them dearly.

But this is only my personal remarks not our Nation's. Let's keep an eye on China they are testing the waters right now but we'd had better let them know this is unapproriate action of which could result in an exchange that neither side really wants to entertain.

Boats
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