Why China brought out the ‘aircraft-carrier killer’ to flex its military muscle
- PLA test-fired four medium-range ballistic missiles in the South China Sea on Wednesday, according to US defence official
- They included the DF-26B and DF-21D – types of weapons banned under the INF treaty, which Beijing wasn’t part of
They said a DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile was also launched from Zhejiang province in the east.
However, a US defence official said the Chinese military had launched four medium-range ballistic missiles in the region on Wednesday, though they had yet to identify them, according to Reuters.
It is not known whether the missiles hit any targets, but a US Air Force missile-tracking spy plane was dispatched to the area, flight tracking information showed, apparently to monitor and collect intelligence on the warheads.
China was not a signatory to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty agreed by the US and Soviet Union towards the end of the Cold War, but its DF-26 and DF-21D are types of weapons banned under the pact. When the US withdrew from the treaty last year, it cited China’s deployment of such weapons as justification. It also said Russia had violated the treaty.
From the launch site in Qinghai to the target area in the South China Sea, the “aircraft-carrier killer” would have travelled about 2,500km (1,550 miles), while the distance from Zhejiang for the DF-21D was about 1,600km (995 miles).
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The two missiles have a range of 4,000km (2,485 miles) and 1,800km (1,120 miles), respectively.
Travelling out of the atmosphere then re-entering at more than 20 times the speed of sound, they are much faster and harder to intercept than cruise missiles. The DF-21D is designed to strike large, moving surface ships, while the nuclear-capable DF-26 can hit both surface and ground targets.
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But the US and Soviet Union were banned from developing such land-based ballistic or cruise missiles with a range of between 500km and 5,500km (310 miles and 3,420 miles) under the INF treaty they signed in 1987. Instead, they shifted focus to air- and sea-based missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Pressure from western Europe played a big part in the treaty, because missiles in that range would not reach from Moscow to Washington, but they could pose a significant threat to European nations if the two Cold War rivals exchanged fire.