The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, a stealth anti-ship missile capable of sinking a large Chinese vessel.
According to DARPA, the LRASM system will confer enormous offensive capabilities in the surface war.
The specifications speak of a missile able to overcome environments (A2 / D2), with powerful missile defense systems and electronic warfare. The missile will also have the ability to reach the target in a completely independent way even with the GPS system deactivated.
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The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, designed by Lockheed Martin, has successfully completed three flight tests.
According to DARPA it will enter service for the 2018.
To protect the Chinese "carrier killer", the Pentagon has also signed millionaires with Raytheon to develop a RIM-162 ESSM "Evolved SeaSparrow", a boarded anti-missile system. The hope is that a similar weapon may be able to take down the DF-21D missiles, despite their high speed and high trajectory.
The US Navy has undertaken a research and development plan to strengthen the entire defensive and offensive apparatus within the next thirty years.
The "Dong Feng" class
The "Dong Feng" or "Vento dell'Est" class is made up of a series of medium and long range intercontinental ballistic carriers in service with the Chinese Missile Strategic Force. The number one enemy of the US aircraft carrier is called DF-21D, a MARV anti-ship ballistic missile that is considered capable of sinking an aircraft carrier. Already in the 2009, commenting on the system, the CIA said that "if it works it would be absolutely capable of perforating any existing defense".
The missile version D of the "Dong Feng-21", flies to the 10 mach target. The only way to circumvent an attack carried out by an 10 mach missile whose exact launching point is lost would be through the use of electronic countermeasures.
The DF-21D exists, but we have no confirmation of its real capabilities. It should have a range of 2500 km and inertial guidance system with active radar in the terminal phase. We are certainly not in front of the classic Iranian rhetoric, with cardboard tools sold for ultra-technological carriers: China represents the future enemy for the USA, but one wonders if it has the necessary know-how for such weapons, considering that there are no evidence of its use on a moving carrier.
With the money needed to build a aircraft carrier, however, the Chinese could buy no less than 1200 DF-21D missiles.
The evolution of the DF-21D, the DF-26 would increase the range to 3600 km, but there is no trace of its entry into service. China also has thirty DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles ready for launch. The ten standard DF-31 missiles would not be able to hit the heart of the US, while the DF-31A winds, with a range of twelve thousand kilometers, could hit the country's vital infrastructure. The two versions would be ready for launch in less than thirty minutes.
The DF-31 is a three-stage ballistic missile on a mobile or sub-driven ramp with a maximum estimated range of eight thousand km. The astro-inertial guided missile is able to carry only one head from a megatone or three MIRVs from 150 kilotons.
The Chinese Missile Strategic Force has ten DF-31 service. The DF-31A differs for the most out of a mile, about twelve thousand kilometers, and the ability to carry three Marv headlights from 150 chillies. The nuclear attack capability represented by the DF-31A is twenty war-ready missiles. To this long-range nuclear projection, you need to add the brand new DF-41 not yet shown to the public.
Beijing could have built a dozen on a mobile ramp (and another twelve in reserve). The DF-41 would be able to carry up to ten multi-indented maneuverable heads independent of 250 kilotons fourteen thousand kilometers away.
Franco Iacch
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(photo: Lockheed Martin / archive)
