China'a DF-21D Missile Is A One-Shot Aircraft Carrier Killer

Gizmodo ^ | July 24, 2012 | Andrew Tarantola

[Talisker]

China's new DF-21D ballistic missile—the only device on Earth capable of sinking an aircraft carrier—four and a half acres of sovereign US territory—with one shot.

Liberals would be mildly amusing, if they couldn't vote.

[null and void]

Nice dam you got in there in the Three Rivers Gorge.

It would be a pity if anything should happen to it...

[JRandomFreeper]

There's a reason they call them missiles, and hittiles.

/johnny

[Bobalu]

That set of Yaogan satellites would have a very short life expectancy if things heated up over there.

A missile that takes out a US carrier would be better named “The Nuclear War Initiator”.

Any administration that did not counter-strike VERY powerfully after a carrier sinking would doom their party to at least 2 generations out of power.

[Kevmo]

I was predicting the onset of this missile more than 5 years ago. Other freepers told me I was naive.

[Little Ray]

Its single fuel-air explosive warhead packs 200 to 500 kilotons.

Somehow, I don't think this person is very well informed; either that or he's very bad at math. Also, I don't think he grasps the capabilities of the Aegis class cruisers and destroyers escorting those carriers. Finally, I don't think the missile has been tested against a maneuvering target; no knows how well it will work.

[econjack]

Amazing. And since they’ve been working on it since the 70’s, there’s absolutely no chance that the US would have tried to develop counter measures, like jamming their radio/radar signals, high-speed defensive missiles, or other measures that we haven’t even thought of. Wow...we just have to sit back and take it in the shorts.

[JRandomFreeper]

Yeah, I was wondering about that and was starting to do the kiloton TNT to erg conversions and then do the math to figure out how big the fuel/air explosive warhead would be, but I stopped. It's late, I've had beers, and even a zoomie cook can estimate the orders of magnitude without getting into the exact numbers.

Someone added some zeros somewhere.

/johnny

[moonshot925]

As of right now, a single Ohio class SSBN carries 96 nuclear warheads(W76 or W88).

That is more than enough to destroy the economic potential of China.

An attack on one of our CVNs would provoke a nuclear response.

[onedoug]

If they ever do it I suspect life is going to change for a whole lot of us, regardless of who’s President.

[fremont_steve]

You noticed this too? ;-)

I went and looked up the “Mother of All Bombs” on wikipedia. It is specified as an 11 ton explosive yield. So unless this puppy is nuclear - it isn’t going to be 200 to 500 Ktons!

[Bobalu]

China would also instantly lose access to the US market and cancel the worth of any US bonds held. India would eventually become the big economic winner after China/US trade was undone. The Chinese would really, really hate for India to be blessed this way.

Risking devastating economic and physical destruction for a chance to assert control over Taiwan seems stupid to me.

But then history is replete with examples of just such stupidity.

[Secret Agent Man]

If china tagged a carrier, what’s the chance they’ll ever get their trillion and a half dollars paid back? Hint: name of most famous japanese wwii aircraft.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I assume that a fuel/air explosive has less energy than TNT, so the missile must carry a payload of at least 100,000 tons of fuel to mix with air. I wonder what it weighs at launch.

[JRandomFreeper]

I didn't push it that far. After I figured out ergs per ton of TNT, and looked up a table of liquid fuels, I called quits.

As I said, even a cook can see the numbers are utter bullsquat.

/johnny

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It’s gotta be a big sucka!

[topher]

A couple of points:

The US has been experimenting with OTH since the 1980's, so they would know alot about that.

Also, since the 1980's, the US has been looking at Lasers to knock down missiles at distances.

What was the 1980's -- the Reagan Defense build up. Maybe we need to need to have a Manhattan type project for Lasers weapons that can take out incoming missiles of any kind.

Screw the treaties, full speed ahead...

[philman_36]

Liberals would be mildly amusing, if they couldn't vote.
If you asked them what "Jane's" was they would probably lose their mind trying to come up with an answer.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

I’m sure that Obama would send the most heartfelt note and condolences to the families of crew, he might even shed a tear and mention God.

To the Chinese he’d be quite scolding.