China's new carrier killer DF21D missile worries US
China's new Dong Feng 21D missile is posing a new threat to the US aircraft carrier battle groups. These carrier groups have ruled the seas in the far east for decades, but now there is a cloud on the horizon. The new DF 21D missile is said to be capable of of hitting a powerfully defended moving target, like the USS George Washington, with pinpoint precision.
The missile would penetrate defenses because its speed from launch would not allow enough time for carriers or other large ships to complete countermeasures. That could seriously weaken America's ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea, as well as deny US ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,000 mile long coastline. The development of the missile comes as China is increasingly venturing further out to sea and is becoming more assertive around its coastline and in disputes over territory.
The DF 21D missile is considered a key component of China's strategy of denying US planes and ships access to waters off its coast. The strategy includes overlapping layers of air defense systems, naval assets such as submarines, and advanced ballistic missile systems all woven together with a network of satellites.
However, Vice Adm. Scott van Buskirk, commander of the US 7th Fleet, told the AP in an interview that the Navy does not see the much-feared weapon as creating any insurmountable vulnerability for the US carriers.
"It's not the Achilles heel of our aircraft carriers or our Navy, it is one weapons system, one technology that is out there," Van Buskirk said in an interview this week on the bridge of the USS George Washington, the only carrier that is based in the western Pacific.
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