China’s Ship-Killer Missiles Mobilized to Northwest China Plateau

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Sferrin

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"China's far-reaching, anti-ship ballistic missile the DF-26 has been mobilized to Northwest China's plateau and desert areas, reported China's national broadcaster on Tuesday after a US warship trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea on Monday.

The DF-26 is China's new generation of intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of targeting medium and large ships at sea. It can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.

. . .

The report is a good reminder that China is capable of safeguarding its territory, the anonymous expert said. "Even when launched from deeper inland areas of China, the DF-26 has a range far-reaching enough to cover the South China Sea."

It can hit targets 4,500 kilometers away, china.com reported, making it capable of striking targets including US naval bases in Guam in the western Pacific.

In April 2018, Ministry of National Defense announced that the missile has officially joined the PLA Rocket Force. "

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/198931/china-deploys-ship_killer-df_26-missiles-to-nw-plateau.html

Must be nice. ::)
 
There is a carrier sized variant somewhere out there, it was posted here, somewhere.
 
I think it is worth pointing out that this illustrates a huge problem the PlAN (or this case PLARF) has with regards to weapons tests and training: they have almost no completely secure ocean areas to use. There is little open water inside the first island chain, and almost no deep water outside the SCS. And none of it is territorial (outside very shallow, very cluttered Sea of Borai), so US or allied units can patrol any part of it they feel like.

So instead of testing their long range anti ship weapons on a moving ship, they used a rail mounted purpose built system deep inland far away from prying eyes.

AFAIK DF -21D has only be tested against a water target once, and it was a static barge. It is possible my info is out of date or there were tests outside of open source, but it is incredibly hard to hide a MRBM or IRBM test launch in general, never mind over busy waterways.
 
Josh_TN said:
AFAIK DF -21D has only be tested against a water target once, and it was a static barge. It is possible my info is out of date or there were tests outside of open source, but it is incredibly hard to hide a MRBM or IRBM test launch in general, never mind over busy waterways.
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China Military Power Report 2024, page 65:
The PLARF continues to grow its inventory of DF-26 IRBMs, which it first revealed in 2015 and fielded in 2016. As the PLARF expands its DF-26 inventory, it is phasing out DF-21 equipment. The PLA no longer fields any dedicated BDEs of the dual nuclear-conventional capable DF-21Cs. The multi-role DF-26 is designed to rapidly swap conventional and nuclear warheads and is capable of conducting precision land-attack and anti-ship strikes in the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the SCS from mainland China. In 2020, the PRC fired ASBMs against a moving target in the SCS.
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https://www.scmp.com/news/china/mil...rrier-killer-missiles-successfully-hit-target
https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/chi...o-south-china-sea-claimed-to-hit-target-ship/
 

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