US-China relations: shooting down of mock ICBM was warning to Beijing, observers say

‘SM-3 Block IIA interceptor test could be seen as a response to China launching two aircraft carrier killer missiles into the South China Sea,’ military expert Zhou Chenming says

US wanted to show its Asian allies it is still able to protect them, he says

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A military expert says the US carried out the interceptor test to show it still has superior firepower in Asia. Photo: US Navy

Published: 8:00pm, 18 Nov 2020Updated: 1:47pm, 19 Nov 2020

The United States was sending a clear message to China on Tuesday when it shot down a mock intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) over the Pacific Ocean, military experts said.

“The SM-3 Block IIA interceptor test could be seen as a response to China launching two ‘aircraft carrier killer’ missiles into the South China Sea,” Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming said.

He was referring to reports that the People’s Liberation Army fired a DF-26B and a DF-21D from separate sites into the sea in August, as covered by the South China Morning Post at the time.

Last week it was reported that a former colonel with the Chinese military, speaking at a meeting in October, said the Chinese missiles successfully hit a moving ship close to the Paracel Islands.

Beijing has made no comment about either the launch of the missiles – known as “aircraft carrier killers” – or the mission’s apparent success.

In the US exercise on Tuesday, the latest version of an Aegis SM-3 missile built by American firm Raytheon Missiles & Defence was fired from a destroyer in the Pacific, northeast of Hawaii. Its target was launched from a test site in the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon said.

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