- U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have been a dominant force in the world’s oceans for decades.
- But Russia and China, which in the coming years are considered the two biggest competitors of the US, are working hard on new weapons that could threaten domination.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
In August, China launched two ballistic missiles that, according to a Chinese military expert, hit a moving target in the South China Sea thousands of kilometers from their launch sites.
If true, the test – which a month after the U.S. deployed two airline groups in the region and a day after a U.S. U-2 spy plane observed a live fire exercise by the Chinese navy – is the first known demonstration of China’s long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles at a moving target.
“We are doing this because of their provocation,” said Wang Xiangsui, a former Chinese colonel and professor at Beihang University in Beijing, referring to the deployments, calling the test a “warning to the United States.”
Not to be outdone, the Russian navy made its third test launch of the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile in the White Sea in December. The rocket was launched from a frigate and reached a speed of Mach 8 before reaching a “coast target” more than 200 kilometers further.
The tests are just the latest indication that American aircraft carriers, long regarded as kings of the sea, may soon face a real threat to their existence.
High priority targets
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and other U.S. Navy ships during a transient exercise with the Indian Navy in 2012.
US Navy photo
America’s carriers have always been one of the biggest targets for competitors. While the Soviet bearers publicly indulged bearers as “the oppressor of national liberation movements”, they recognized it as a dominant weapon platform.
This was especially the case after they realized that American airplane planes contained aircraft that contained nuclear cargo.
Declassified CIA documents reveal that in the 1980s the Soviets rarely criticized carriers in internal discussions and even praised their “high combat stability”. One 1979 document states that carriers would be ‘the highest priority in ship attacks’ in possible war scenarios, with amphibious attack ships likely to be close at hand.
The plans to deal with airlines were based almost entirely on cruise missiles fired from submarines, bombers and surface ships – ideally at the same time. To this end, the Soviet Navy emphasized technology for cruise missiles and missile capability on all its vessels – even on its own aircraft carriers.
Soviet Navy aircraft carrier Minsk in Kiev, February 9, 1983.
U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Glenn Lindsey
Soviet Navy Tu-16, Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers were the primary air delivery systems. Cruisers from the Kynda, Kresta, Slava and nuclear-powered Kirov classes were the primary surface delivery platforms.
A number of nuclear-powered and diesel-electric submarines, such as the Oscar II and Juliett class, would shoot the missiles from underwater and to the surface.
But even that may not have been enough. American air defense and air wings are considered so strong by the Soviets that as many as 100 bombers would be sent to attack one carrier, and the losses were expected to amount to 50%. Soviet pilots did not even get detailed flight paths for their return.
There were also fears that the missiles could be shot down or intercepted, so the Soviets concluded that many had to be armed with nuclear warheads.
Declining carrier dominance
USS Nimitz departs from Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on June 8, 2020.
US Navy / MCS 2nd Class Natalie M. Byers
With the passing of the Cold War and the Soviet Union over, the American airline seemed more than assured. These carriers have played key roles in conflicts in which the U.S. has been involved since the 1990s.
But the order after the Cold War is slowly being challenged – mainly by China’s meteoric rise in military power, which has consequences for the dominance of the carrier.
US transportation companies are one of the biggest concerns in Beijing. Their presence helped ward off an invasion of Taiwan in the 1950s, and in 1996, two militant groups embarrassed China by working freely in Taiwan during a heightened tension that forced Beijing to seize US military power. acknowledge.
Since then, China has invested heavily in anti-carrier capabilities. It first bought a string of weapons from Russia, including Su-30MKK multirole fighters, 12 attack-class Kilo-class submarines and four Sovremenny-class leader missile destroyers.
DF-26 ballistic missiles pass Tiananmen Gate in Beijing during a military parade for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, September 3, 2015.
Andy Wong / Pool via REUTERS
But missiles were China’s main focus. It has amassed one of the world’s largest and most advanced missile arsenals, 95% of which fall outside the scope of the Treaty between the nuclear forces of the medium range, which banned the US and Russia from having missiles between 310 miles and 3100 miles. The US recently withdrew from the treaty, and China was never part of it.
The two missiles tested in August were variants of the DF-21 and DF-26, ranging up to 1,300 and 2,400 miles, respectively.
As they fly higher, faster, and farther than the Soviet cruise missiles, China’s ballistic missiles can overwhelm the anti-missile defense of a carrier and its companions, forcing the carrier to stay far enough away to render its air wing useless.
A U.S. Department of Defense report released this year states that China’s missile development was one area in which Beijing “achieved or even surpassed equality with the United States.”
New threats
A zircon-hypersonic cruise missile will be launched on October 7, 2020 from the Russian frigate Admiral Groshkov in the White Sea north of Russia.
Russian Defense Ministry press service via AP
Hypersonic missiles are another serious threat.
Able to fly at speeds of more than Mach 5 (more than 3800 mph), hypersonic missiles are too fast for the missile defense to respond effectively. They can also change direction during the flight, making it virtually impossible to intercept them.
China employs two hypersonic weapons: the DF-17 and the DF-100. Russia has a number of hypersonic weapons in development, with the Zircon the most promising. Russian officials have said they hope to be able to arm all new ships in the Russian navy with hypersonic weapons.
British officials have already expressed concern about the threat that Russian hypersonic weapons could pose to their carrier.
“Hypersonic missiles are virtually unstoppable,” a senior British naval source told The Daily Mirror. “With no way to protect themselves from missiles like the Zircon, the carrier will have to stay out of reach, hundreds of miles offshore.”
“His planes would be useless and the entire base of a carrier task force would be redundant,” the source said.
The true capabilities of Russia and China’s new anti-carrier weapons are still unknown, but recent tests prove that US Navy carriers may no longer enjoy undisputed dominance.