Thu, Mar 11, 2021 page4

• PRC missiles are threat to carriers: US

  MILITARY MODERNIZATION: Concerning the US’ ability to inhibit a Chinese attack against Taiwan, a US military official said that its “conventional deterrent is eroding”

  • Bloomberg
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  The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) executed a coordinated test launch of its top anti-ship ballistic missile in the South China Sea (SCS) in August last year to send an “unmistakable message,” US Admiral Phil Davidson, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told a US Senate panel on Tuesday.

  “These mid-range, anti-ship ballistic missiles are capable of attacking aircraft carriers in the western Pacific,” Davidson said, identifying the DF-21D as the missile tested. “Their employment during a large-scale PLA exercise demonstrates the PLA’s focus on countering any potential third-party intervention during a regional crisis.”

  Addressing the Senate Armed Services Committee, Davidson signaled that the use of the missile, even if in a drill, was a turning point for the Chinese military.

  

  Aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt is pictured at the US Naval Base Guam on May 15 last year.

  Photo: AFP / US NAVY/ CONNER D. BLAKE

  “Notably, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is not merely developing advanced weapons systems, but is increasingly employing them in training and exercise scenarios to hone PLA warfighting skills, and send an unmistakable message to regional and global audiences,” Davidson said.

  The DF-21D is central to China’s strategy of deterring any military action off its eastern coast by threatening to destroy the major sources of US power projection in the region, its carrier battle groups.

  In January 2011, then-US Naval Intelligence chief Vice Admiral Jack Dorsett said that the US Department of Defense had underestimated the speed at which China developed and was fielding the DF-21D.

  The missiles are designed for launch to a general location, where the guidance systems take over and spot carriers for attack with warheads intended to destroy aircraft on decks, airplane-launching gear and control towers. The Pentagon has said that the missiles have a range of more than 1,500km.

  Reviewing developments in the contested South China Sea, Davidson said that Beijing “continues to militarize the region, deploying new equipment to its artificial outposts in 2020 and using forward airfields to support a growing level of military operations by heavy transport, intelligence, and anti-submarine aircraft.”

  The PLA also conducts large-scale exercises in the region “with an emphasis on amphibious landing, joint fires and maritime strike scenarios” as ships and aircraft maintain “a consistent South China Sea presence,” he said.

  PLA Navy ships “are augmented by an armada of China Coast Guard ships, fishing boats and other paramilitary forces that serve as force multipliers,” Davidson added.

  “These actions — which are inconsistent with [Chinese] President Xi Jinping’s [習近平] and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe’s [魏鳳和] assurances that the PRC would not militarize the SCS — threaten our allies and partners’ autonomy, jeopardize freedoms of navigation, overflight and other lawful uses of the sea, and compromise regional peace and stability,” he said.

  Asked about the implications of China’s military modernization on the US’ ability to deter a Chinese attack on Taiwan, Davidson said: “Our conventional deterrent is eroding in the region, and it’s because of the vast advances that the Chinese have undertaken.”

  He also warned of China’s “vast disinformation machine” which he said aims to “corrupt the environment in a way that creates doubt.”
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