Bit of a strange title in that Indian article claiming their attempt at developing an ASBM is a counter to DF-21D. Makes it sound like their ASBM is a ballistic missile interceptor when it is in fact simply trying to be an ASBM.
The title is catchy but the content is what matters. The content clearly highlights India's attempt to develop an ASBM, with the Agni-P incorporating very small MaRV fins, thus allowing optimized control at high speeds, these fins are for aerodynamic control within the endosphere, between the fins there are thrusters for roll pitch and yaw for missile control within the exosphere, the configuration allows for highly depressed trajectories and increases the glide profile according to selected requirements.
I was under the impression the US just started developing their ASBM? not sure what you mean by "ASBM concept as demonstrated by the US has been pursued and is functional"... yes the US recently started developing their ASBM program and surely will have little trouble developing one.
Taxiya's post is not inaccurate. The US was making a lot of noise about the kill chain resilience behind an effective ASBM. It is also currently trying to develop a platform similar to China's DF-21 or DF-26 ASBM variants, depending on size and range. The juice is clearly worth the squeeze is all Taxiya is trying to say. Despite all the noise making throughout the last decade about how China's ASBM can't possibly be worth developing, they are now doing the exact same.
The US already has a robust kill chain to make ASBM an applicable concept. The only difference between the US and China would be that the Americans have no intention of placing a great emphasis on naval warfare to develop an ASBM centric strategy for several reasons. This is not the American approach. The PrSM as an aeroballistic missile (like Iskander/Kinzhal and ATACMS) that can now target moving ships, with the new propulsion system they will reach a range of 1000 km. Being a ballistic missile, the USA will have two missiles that can be launched from a Himars. But as you can imagine, reaching 1000 km and still being small enough to fit on Himars means its warhead is tiny. Adding a
that can be used against ships is just a complement to the USA/USMC anti-ship capability, which will have a comprehensive missile package:
NSM: 185 km (subsonic)
SM-6: 400 to 500 km against surface targets (supersonic)
PrSM: 500 to 600 km (supersonic/hypersonic)
SM-6 Block IB: 1000 km (hypersonic)
Tomahawk Block V: 1600 to 1800 km (subsonic)
The ASBM concept, whether Chinese, American, Indian or Martian, appears to work well against stationary targets on land and at sea, both, in an uncontested area, in a highly collaborative scenario. Nobody doubts that this is how it works. In fact, the Pershing II had been doing this for 30 years. The question that some have is whether it works against a CSG traveling at 50 km/h. Against isolated ships or groups of ships, even an entire AB fleet, no one doubts that it works, despite there being hard kill and soft kill means of defense.
The point to be discussed continues to be: does it already work, fully, against a CSG under the protection of an air wing containing fighters and planes, radar, etc.?
A CSG is protected by fighters and radar aircraft and hinders or prevents enemy ISR activity within a 500 km radius of the aircraft carrier and this has the potential to break the kill chain involved in the operation of the missiles under discussion (DF-21D and DF- 26). There are several possible defenses against ballistic missiles. Against pure ballistic missiles the defense is basically hard kill, that is, it has to be intercepted before it reaches the target and at a safe distance, because if not, the debris will fall on it anyway. Being a guided ballistic missile, such as the DF-21D, in addition to the hard kill mode (direct interception that aims to destroy the missile) it also has the soft-kill mode, which is based on the interference of the electronic system that makes it work or offering false targets in order to deceive the seeker or hiding from the seeker in some way. Here is a list of systems of both types (hard and soft kill) possible to be implemented in a USN CSG (not including on-board aviation which can break the kill chain):
Soft kill -
AN/SLQ-32 (including newer SEWIP Block III version): active electronic jammer;
AN/SLQ-59: active electronic jammer;
AN/SLQ-62: active electronic jammer;
Mk-36 SRBOC: chaff launchers, flares, etc.;
Mk-53 Nulka: propelled active decoder system;
AN/SLQ-39: floating decapitator system;
A few years ago, a cloud of carbon particles was tested that prevents radar penetration.
The DDG-1000 is stealth and its tiny RCS does not offer enough feedback for a small and weak missile radar.
Hard kill -
Endoatmospheric interceptors:
SM-2 Block IV
SM-6
Exoatmospheric interceptors:
SM-3 Block AI
SM-3 Block IIA
This here is a short report from 2013
on ASBM and its weakness in the extensive kill chain:
What I try, despite being ignorant, is to discuss the entire weapons system.
The media places the ASBM system as something insurmountable, a true game-changer (page 16):
For this reason, some observers have referred to ASBMs as a “game-changing” weapon.
Also, I didn't say his statement is inaccurate. I just stated that the US considers that to make ASBM an applicable concept, it would have to obtain a comprehensive kill chain to make it a reality, it turns out that this turns into a disadvantage when you nullify any targeting system at any stage of this kill chain, making the concept more complicated to pursue and can be highly contested.
India's ASBM relies on imported MQ-9 drones to relay targeting information. This is by far a significantly inferior kill chain compared to what the US can field and what China has fielded for over a decade.
The fact of being imported or national is not a relevant statement. The relevance in the ASBM concept is that it depends on some system that allows selecting and locking on the target in real time, something that a satellite-centric system cannot do, a drone is especially vital in making this capability possible.
Those space based kill chain is one set.
Exactly. They are a set of detection, location and target selection systems. From OTH radars, satellites, drones, helicopters, aircraft, aerostats and so on.
