Report: Chinese Develop Special "Kill Weapon" to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers

[grumbler]

Grumbler, considering your work on a study of the Soviet use of such weapons, how long would it have taken them to develop an ASBM sophisticated enough to hit with moderate accuracy a CVN? Would they have ever been able to do it? I know computers and satellites were quite limited back in 200 BCE, so let us suppose they tried to do this using technology of the mid to late 80s.

Considering that, how long do you think it would take the Chinese to develop it, using current technology?

Just curious.

The main problem with a radar-guided warhead on a ballistic missile is related to the main problem shooting one down: the very speed of the warhead means that it has mere seconds within which to light off its radar, detect the target, maneuver, and attack. 

That was good enough for Pershing II, which was going to be within a few hundred meters of the target anyway, and just needed to refine a 100m CEP to a 30m one.  For an anti-ship warhead, you may need to be able to detect early enough to maneuver for miles, and the airbody itself isn't maneuverable, so you have to use thrusters.  That gives you a real engineering problem: normal long-range radars are big, with big antennae.  You do you fit them into a small warhead like this?  You could use a small, high-frequency radar, but then how to you get the enormous power needed? Lidar was looked at  a possible solution, but was also energy-intensive and cannot see through clouds, so required perfect weather (and no countermeasures) to work.  Maybe there have been advanced since 200BCE that would make it more suitable.

Nuclear-tipped ASBMs were deemed marginally effective in the studies I was part of, and conventionally-tipped ASBMs were deemed beyond the threat horizon we could extrapolate using even the latest theoretical engineering. 

If there are enough weapons to use a barrage attack method, of if there is midcourse guidance using a platform in re-time contact with the target (assuming that the platform can distinguish between the real carrier and the decoys, or there are enough missiles to attack all contacts) none of the conclusions above hold true.

Absent a midcourse guidance platform, I don't see the Chinese developing a successful system any time soon.

And, no, radar satellites won't do the trick.

[grumbler]

I second the sentiment - though he needs to be wearing his glasses.

He actually called them his "combat glasses" and didn't wear them except in battle.

[FunkMonk]

Very cool stuff. Appreciate the answers.

[Neil]

The obvious solution is to drop nukes on carriers right out of orbit, possibly from the Chinese moonbase.

[grumbler]

The obvious solution is to drop nukes on carriers right out of orbit, possibly from the Chinese moonbase.

Yep, a nuclear barrage is a way to go, especially if you can dirty up your bombs.  Even if you don't get much shock impact on the carrier, washdown and decontamination would take a while.

[Razgovory]

So why are they trying to develope weapons to destroy our carriers again?  Why would we actually fight a war over anything?

The Chinese have long realized they have to many people.  The one child policy is effective but long term.  They need something quicker.

[Ed Anger]

That it does. That it does. You are a good egg.

Who is the dorky looking balding dude? kinda looks like fahdiz.

You are owed one(1) additional kick in the nuts.

That is Marshal Davout,  Duc d'Auerstädt, Prince d'Eckmühl. Coolest of the cool. Bestest marshal Napoleon ever had.

[FunkMonk]

That it does. That it does. You are a good egg.

Who is the dorky looking balding dude? kinda looks like fahdiz.

You are owed one(1) additional kick in the nuts.

That is Marshal Davout,  Duc d'Auerstädt, Prince d'Eckmühl. Coolest of the cool. Bestest marshal Napoleon ever had.

Question: What if the Iron Marshal had nuclear weapons? Or more to the point, Napoleon had anti-sea ballistic missiles?

[Ed Anger]

That it does. That it does. You are a good egg.

Who is the dorky looking balding dude? kinda looks like fahdiz.

You are owed one(1) additional kick in the nuts.

That is Marshal Davout,  Duc d'Auerstädt, Prince d'Eckmühl. Coolest of the cool. Bestest marshal Napoleon ever had.

Question: What if the Iron Marshal had nuclear weapons? Or more to the point, Napoleon had anti-sea ballistic missiles?

Davout could win with just a stare. If transported to the ACW, he could whip every Southern general with both arms tied behind his back.

[grumbler]

Davout could win with just a stare. 

The Man wouldn't even have to stare.

If transported to the ACW, he could whip every Southern general with both arms tied behind his back.

He'd whip the M off Marse Bobby, fer sher.  Stonewall would be called Stonedead in the history books.

[Siege]

How good is the T-55 compared to modern American tanks?

The war with China is not going to be fought on the ground.

Untill they invade Europe.

[Razgovory]

How good is the T-55 compared to modern American tanks?

The war with China is not going to be fought on the ground.

Untill they invade Europe.

Oh I doubt they'll come from Space.

[Siege]

So why are they trying to develope weapons to destroy our carriers again?  Why would we actually fight a war over anything?

They are going to expand at one point or another. They claim to be a "soft power", but their riches will bring them a more tech advanced military, and with greater capabilities their goals will eventually change. They will become a superpower no matter what we do, and with superpowerdom comes conflict, whether cold or hot.

The thing that worries me is that China learnt the wrong lessons from their relationship with the West during the 19th and 20th centuries. They understand "power" in a way we in the West see as obsolete. They didn't go through colonialism and imperialism. They were in the receiving end.

I see the US Army fighting chinese 3rd world proxy regimes within a couple decades.

[Syt]

- "Six hundred million screaming Chinamen."
- "Last I heard, there were a billion screaming Chinamen."
- "There *were*. "

[Siege]

How good is the T-55 compared to modern American tanks?

The war with China is not going to be fought on the ground.

Untill they invade Europe.

Oh I doubt they'll come from Space.

At the height of the Empire, the romans laughed at the barbarians hordes.

I just hope that your words about them coming from space don't prove prophetic. The last thing we need is a chinese orbital bomber.