China's new 'carrier killer' missile won't stop us doing our job, says U.S. navy commander
A new much-feared missile that has become a symbol of China's growing military power will not change the way the U.S. Navy operates in the Pacific, a senior navy commander has warned. The 'carrier killer' Dong Feng 21D missile has the potential to change the balance of power in Asia, where U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups have been in charge since the Second World War.
But Vice Admiral Scott van Buskirk, commander of the vast U.S. 7th Fleet, said that the Navy does not see the weapon as creating any insurmountable vulnerability for the American carriers. Speaking from the bridge of the USS George Washington in the western Pacific, Mr van Buskirk said: 'It's not the Achilles heel of our aircraft carriers or our Navy. It is one weapons system, one technology that is out there.'
The DF 21D is thought to be capable of striking a powerfully-defended moving target like the USS George Washington with pinpoint precision, the Associated Press reports. The missile would penetrate defences because its incredible speed from launch would not allow enough time for carriers or other large vessels to complete counter-measures.
That could seriously hurt the U.S.'s ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea, as well as deny American ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,200-mile long coastline. The technology and cost involved in developing such a weapon is so great that the Soviets gave up on a similar project. Van Buskirk, who commands a fleet of up to 70 ships and 40,000 sailors and Marines in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said the capabilities of the Chinese missile are as yet unproven.
'Any new capability is something that we try to monitor,' he said. 'If there wasn't this to point to as a game changer, there would be something else. 'That term has been bandied about for many things. It really depends on how you define the game, whether it really changes it or not.' The Vice Admiral spoke out a month after it was revealed that China may have started testing a new stealth aircraft putting it well ahead of Western predictions that a revamped air force would not be ready for take-off for another decade.
Photographs of the J-20 taking high-speed taxi tests at an airfield appeared on several websites in early January, fuelling speculation that Beijing is not particularly concerned about keeping one of its latest weapons under wraps - at least unofficially.
The country's growing economic muscle and the rise in its military capability have seen the communist state's confidence grow on the world stage. But China's Foreign Ministry insists its military is one of peace, saying: 'We pose no threat to other countries.'
