U.S. Ship-Borne Missile Successfully Intercepts Missile Target for the First Time to Face China?
The U.S. government announced Tuesday that a U.S. Navy destroyer successfully launched its first anti-missile missile test earlier in the day, intercepting and destroying an intercontinental missile target. U.S. military officials said the successful test was a major achievement and milestone for the ABM program. Some argue that this marks a significant step forward in the U.S. ability to further contain North Korea, as well as a significant step forward in countering China.
The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement that an Aegis-capable U.S. Navy destroyer fired a Standard-3 IIA missile, jointly developed by Raytheon Co. and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, early Wednesday morning, successfully destroying one of its missiles. Intercontinental Missile Target. This anti-missile missile intercepted a target missile fired from a test site in the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean off northeast Hawaii.
Milestone Testing
Jon Hill, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said the Standard-3 IIA missile was designed to intercept an intermediate-range ballistic missile threat, and the test proved the missile’s ability to intercept an ICBM, helping the U.S. military determine the feasibility of the system’s integration into a layered homeland defense architecture.
This is the first U.S. test of a sea-based ICBM interceptor, as all previous U.S. ABM tests have been conducted from underground silos within the United States.
According to Richard Fisher, a China expert at the Center for International Assessments and Strategy, the test has boosted U.S. confidence in its ability to defend against North Korean missiles, and it remains to be seen how much of a deterrent the system will be against Chinese ICBMs.
“The sea-based interceptor ICBM test should improve the U.S. ability to defend itself against a North Korean nuclear missile attack, but how well it will defend itself against a Chinese nuclear missile attack will depend on the system’s reach,”
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the North Korean government held a huge military parade last month and debuted a new intercontinental ballistic missile that requires eleven axles of missile launchers to carry. They also displayed the Mars-15 ICBM at the parade, which is the longest-range missile North Korea has ever tested, and can reach the U.S. mainland.
Who is the imaginary enemy?
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on Wednesday quoted Phoenix Satellite Television commentator Song Zhongping, a former instructor at the PLA’s Second Artillery Engineering College, as saying that the anti-missile missile tested by the U.S. military that day could not successfully intercept a new Chinese ICBM such as the Dongfeng-41, which has superior guidance and deflection capabilities. As a result, the ABM is more threatening to ICBMs developed by North Korea and Iran.
Traveling Chinese scholar Cheng Xiaonong said he has reservations about Song Zhongping’s view because the Dongfeng-41 ICBM may not be as flexible as the latter claims.
“The Dongfeng-41 is a long-range missile that is tens of meters long, and it can’t change trajectory in the air that easily, but of course to what extent the CCP has mastered the ability and technology to change trajectory in the air with cruise missiles, we don’t know.”
Although the U.S. Department of Defense statement about the test did not mention the potential targets of the anti-missile system, some have suggested that it was a warning about some of China’s recent military exercises.
In late August, China fired a Dongfeng-26B missile from Qinghai and a Dongfeng-21D missile from Zhejiang into the South China Sea, both of which are known as “carrier-killer” anti-ship ballistic missiles.
The U.S. Department of Defense subsequently criticized the tests, noting that they undermined China’s commitment made years ago to avoid militarization of the South China Sea and contrasted with U.S. advocacy of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Scholars: U.S., China Will Continue Missile Upgrades
The South China Morning Post previously quoted Wang Xiangsui, a retired Chinese air force colonel and director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as saying in a closed-door meeting last month that the two anti-ship missiles hit a moving target ship in the waters south of the Paracel Islands (known in China as the Paracel Islands) just days after the U.S. aircraft carrier group entered the South China Sea. He said the Chinese move was a warning to the U.S. not to take military risks, as it would touch the bottom line of the Sino-U.S. confrontation.
Cheng’s analysis said the two countries will continue to engage in missile escalation amid growing tensions in U.S.-China relations.
“The next step will be for both sides to quietly begin preparations for a new round of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) expansion, which may culminate in a complete update of the existing fixed-orbit ABM system, replacing it with a changeable one.”
Also on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a series of contracts and agreements they have signed with several manufacturers of rare earth elements, noting that this will strengthen the country’s rare earth supply chain in order to reduce its dependence on Chinese raw materials.
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