China finally confirms ASBM in military parade of 70th anniversary of ww2 victory

CHINA unveils ‘Guam Express’ advanced anti-ship missile

Charles Clover in Beijing

Three weeks ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, China unveiled several new anti-ship missiles at a military parade in Beijing, forcibly demonstrating that America’s undisputed maritime power was under threat.

Analysts who had been expecting to catch the first public glimpse of the DF-21D “carrier-killer” missile were not disappointed. The missile — for which there is no reliable defence — has been in development since 2011. Its unveiling on Thursday ended weeks of suspense among the global army of specialists who track Beijing’s defence technology breakthroughs.

For all that, however, the missile itself was not seen. Just a launch tube on a motorised carriage with “DF-21D” stencilled on the side was displayed. The main objective of including it in the parade appeared to be symbolic.
Experts were more excited by an offhand comment by the parade announcer, who said that an even more advanced anti-ship missile was already in deployment.

The DF-26 missile, an advanced intermediate-range ballistic missile with a range of 3,000km to 4,000km, had already been fitted with an anti-ship warhead, according to the parade announcer.

“While an ASBM [Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile] version of the DF-26 was predictable, that it is already a deployed system is quite a shock,” said Rick Fisher, Senior Fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Washington.

The announcer also said the DF-26 was capable of targeting “medium-size ships”, meaning that both US aircraft carriers and their escorting destroyers would be vulnerable.

The longer range of the DF-26 — the DF-21D can only reach 1,500km — means it is capable of reaching the so-called “second island chain” in the western Pacific Ocean, all the way to the US base on Guam.
“A Chinese ability to attack reinforcing US naval forces with precision strikes out to Guam clearly undermines US security guarantees in our multiple Asian alliances, and our implicit security guarantees to Taiwan,” said Mr Fisher.

Patriotic Chinese took to Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, to boast about the weaponry on display, calling the DF-26 “the Guam Express”.

Some analysts say such missiles threaten to consign aircraft carriers — which form the basis of US naval strategy — to the dustbin

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