An article published Friday in The National Interest, a U.S. diplomatic and security journal, asks the question —— Can the Chinese Communist Party sink a U.S. aircraft carrier? The author, Kris Osborn , was a highly qualified expert at the Pentagon in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army.
The article says that the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that U.S. aircraft carriers are extremely vulnerable is open to debate and different interpretations.
The article describes official Chinese media reports that U.S. aircraft carriers in the South China Sea are “completely under the control of the People’s Liberation Army” and that the Chinese military has a variety of anti-carrier weapons, including the Dongfeng-21D and Dongfeng-26 “carrier missiles.
The Communist Party’s report was issued in response to the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz twin carriers’ training exercises in the region. The U.S. exercises involve decisive efforts to prepare for a possible coordinated multi-carrier attack. These types of operations succeed by virtue of complex networking, command and control, and air conflict efforts. They also provide significant advantages to maritime attack options by doubling firepower, surveillance potential, and weapons capabilities.
The dual carrier strike option not only extends the Navy’s ability to strike inland targets to a greater extent, extending target search dwell time and enabling multi-platform coordinated strikes, but also significantly increases the missile strike capability of destroyers and cruisers. Each carrier strike group consists of one carrier, cruiser and two destroyers, bringing a large, integrated portfolio of maritime launch assets.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that U.S. carriers are extremely vulnerable is debatable and subject to different interpretations. With a reported range of up to 900 nautical miles, these missiles are considered a significant threat to U.S. aircraft carriers. At the same time, U.S. Navy leaders have made it clear that U.S. carriers are ready to operate where they are needed. There are a number of factors to consider here. First, the range of this type of Chinese carrier-killer missile reportedly does not pose as serious a threat to closer carriers unless it has a precision guidance system and the ability to strike moving targets. Also, while much of this will not naturally be discussed for understandable security reasons, the U.S. Navy is still rapidly advancing new technologies to improve its multi-layered ship self-defense system.
Video: SM-6 Missile
Aircraft carriers often sail in strike groups, meaning they are defended by destroyers, cruisers and a variety of air surveillance and strike forces. Second, the Navy continues to make rapid progress in equipping surface ships with new laser weapons and advanced electronic warfare systems that may “jam” incoming missiles, stopping them, disrupting their trajectory, or simply diverting them off course.
Photo: USS Portland, a U.S. Navy amphibious transport ship, performs a demonstration
In addition, the Navy’s multi-layered defense system includes not only new long-range air, space and shipboard sensors, but deck-launched interceptor missiles are also being upgraded with software to improve accuracy. For example, the Navy’s SM-6 missile and improved Sea Sparrow missile Block II now have software and sensor upgrades that allow them to better identify and destroy approaching “moving targets. For example, the SM-6 missile has been upgraded with a “dual-mode” seeker designed into the weapon itself, allowing it to better identify moving targets and adjust to destroy them in flight.
Photo: SM-6 missile
The improved Sea Sparrow missile, however, also has a sea-skimming mode that allows the interceptor missile to destroy approaching missiles flying parallel to the surface at a lower altitude. Some of the newer, advanced interceptor missiles no longer rely solely on shipboard illuminators, but semi-autonomously receive electronic “pulses” and make in-flight adjustments to destroy approaching anti-ship missiles.
Photo: Sea Sparrow missile Block II
New airborne sensors, such as advanced UAVs and ISR-capable (ISR = intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) F-35C stealth fighters, may prove successful as an “air node” surveillance asset that can alert surface force commanders when missiles are approaching. They could also help ships launch attacks and, in some cases, intercept or destroy approaching anti-ship missiles from the air. In fact, U.S. Navy destroyers have deployed this capability, which is known as Naval Integrated Fire Control-Air Defense. This system is capable of using airborne nodes, such as Hawkeye early warning aircraft or even F-35s, to detect an approaching threat from out of view, network the ship’s command and control system, and control the SM-6 interceptor missile to take out the approaching missile at long range.
All of this means that carrier battle groups can successfully defend against carrier killer missiles, despite the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that they make carriers “obsolete. This is especially true if the carriers are flanked by well-armed DDG 51 destroyers. Perhaps these factors are part of the reason why Navy leaders continue to say that U.S. carriers can operate successfully wherever they are needed. Finally, with the arrival of carrier-launched MQ-25 Stingray refueling aircraft, successful interception of 900-nautical-mile anti-ship missiles may prove less urgent, and at the very least, the refueling aircraft is expected to nearly double the strike range of deck-launched warplanes such as the F-35C and F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Photo: DDG51 destroyer
By Kris Osborn, defense editor at The National Interest, who served as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon.
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