Anti-ship cruise missile is China's deadliest weapon: US expert

• Staff Reporter
 
• 2015-01-25

The C-802, the export version of the Chinese YJ-83 missile displayed in front of a Pakistan Air Force JF-17 fighter. (Internet photo)

Anti-ship cruise missiles like the YJ-83 will pose the largest threat to the United States and its security partners in the Western Pacific, Associate professor Lyle Goldstein from the US Naval War College writes in an article for the Washington-based National Interest magazine on Jan. 22.

Goldstein said the outcome of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982 would have been different if Argentina possessed between 50 to 100 Exocet anti-ship cruise missiles. However, it lost the war because it only had five Exocets to take on the British task force sent to reclaim the islands in the South Atlantic following the Argentine invasion. China has devoted huge resources in the development of anti-ship cruise missiles over the last 30 years to prepare for a potential conflict off its coast.

Equipped with sophisticated radars and electronic countermeasures, the large fleet of land-based aircraft of the People's Liberation Army Navy pose a great threat to regional stability, Goldstein said, adding that the PLA Navy has the capability to launch an "air-sea battle" with Chinese characteristics. The arrival of 24 Russian-built Su-30MK2 fighters in 2004 for the first time has given Beijing a credible "air-sea battle" strategy.

With a combat radius of 1,300 kilometers, the Su-30MK2 can fly beyond the first island chain, extending from Alaska to the Philippines. The H-6 strategic bomber and the JH-7 tactical bomber form the foundation of the Chinese Navy’s tactical strike force against sea targets. However, the most dangerous weapon system of all is the YJ-83 subsonic anti-ship cruise missile.

Citing a survey from the October 2014 issue of Chinese-language defense magazine Shipborne Weapons, Goldstein said that the YJ-83 is better than the imported Russian-made supersonic KH-31 in certain situations with respect to combat effectiveness despite the fact that it is subsonic. With a range of 150 km, the export version of the YJ-83 made headlines when Lebanon struck and achieved a mission kill against an Israeli corvette in 2006.

Designed as China's first-generation anti-ship cruise missile, the article stated that the YJ-83 is not enough to allow the PLA Navy to defeat the US and Japanese forces in combat. It indicated that two types of second-generation anti-ship cruise missiles are under development. The first one is the YJ-12 supersonic cruise missile with a speed of Mach 3. The second is the YJ-100 subsonic anti-ship cruise missile with a range of 800 km. Both are designed to "outgun" the US carrier battle group