China lab simulates attack on US warships using space weapons, hypersonic missiles
- Laboratory that works on electronic warfare equipment for PLA shows how satellites and missiles might be used to strike an aircraft carrier group
- Researchers say ‘electronic warfare in outer space using low-orbit satellite constellations has become an important means of information warfare’
An American aircraft carrier strike group churns through the ocean at full throttle. With warplanes, its combat range is 1,000km (620 miles).
From 1,200km (745 miles) away, a salvo of Chinese hypersonic anti-ship missiles is launched skyward. They climb for more than 200km (124 miles), then head for the US warships, whose radars do not detect them until 10 minutes after launch. By then the missiles are just 50km (30 miles) away.
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Leading the project was Liu Shichang, a scientist with the Science and Technology on Electronic Information Control Laboratory. The secretive lab works on electronic warfare equipment for the Chinese military, under state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.
Liu said the missiles went undetected because China’s space-based electromagnetic weapon system was suppressing the radars of the escort ships in a “top-down” manner.
“Commanding height has always been a pivotal tactic in war since ancient times,” Liu and the team wrote in the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Shipboard Electronic Countermeasures in December.
“With the evolution of the concept of war and the advancement of technology, space has become a new commanding height fiercely contested by the world’s military powers.”
In the simulation, the Chinese missiles had backup from several low-orbit electronic warfare satellites that were in position above the American aircraft carrier, according to the paper.
The satellites found radar signals from the US warships then fired back similar, high-powered signals – so that even if radar waves were being reflected by the missiles, the echoes could not be distinguished from the strong background noise.
Liu’s team concluded that a low-orbit satellite constellation had some “unique advantages” in a challenging mission such as this.
Space-based platforms – unlike electronic-warfare aircraft, for example – operate beyond national boundaries, so they can be swiftly mobilised across the globe and cover a broader combat range.
And because these satellites are in orbit at only a few hundred kilometres, the jamming signals they beam down “suffer minimal power loss, require less sensitive receivers and transmitter power, and are more feasible for engineering”, the research team said.
It said China was “forging ahead with related research and applications”, and that “electronic warfare in outer space using low-orbit satellite constellations has become an important means of information warfare”.
Based on their study, the researchers believe two or three satellites would be enough to attack an aircraft carrier group, while a constellation of just 28 satellites would support a global strike.
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The Chengdu team’s simulation was based on the US military’s SPY-1D radar that is used – mainly by the navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers – to detect long-range anti-ship missiles.
Lockheed Martin makes the radar and told US media last year that it could remain in service until 2060.
The SPY-1 series has been in operation since the 1970s, meaning China’s military is well acquainted with its capabilities, according to the researchers.
They believed two satellites could be used to suppress the same radar from different angles, creating “false air alerts to the front, side and behind the enemy”.
So when the Chinese anti-ship missiles are within 50km (30 miles) of the target, “the satellites complete their suppression mission, the missile-borne jammers are activated, and the missiles perform terminal manoeuvres for further penetration until they destroy the target”, the paper said.
A long-range attack on an aircraft carrier strike group is considered difficult to achieve – satellites, missiles and ships are all high-speed moving targets. But Liu’s team claim that their simulation – which set out a timeline and space range for such a strike – shows it is possible.
They noted that other countries, such as the US and Russia, were also looking to space weapons for this scenario.
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The hypersonic missile used in the simulation was not disclosed but the paper emphasised that it differed from a traditional ballistic missile in its ability to manoeuvre during the terminal phase – meaning it could approach a target on an unpredictable trajectory.
The missile’s stated range is similar to that of China’s YJ-21 “aircraft carrier killer”. The hypersonic anti-ship missile is believed to be able to reach speeds of up to Mach 10, which would leave an enemy air defence system with less than 20 seconds to react.
Military experts believe the YJ-21 has been deployed on warships such as the Type 055 destroyer. The Chengdu team did not disclose the platform for launching the missiles in their simulation.
In another simulation last year, by researchers from North University of China, Chinese hypersonic missiles were launched from land towards a US aircraft carrier strike group.
Just over 20 hypersonic missiles were deployed to attack the American naval fleet in that scenario, but space assets were not used and the Chinese missiles were detected from launch by the US.
