May 27, 2007: The Chinese military press has
published numerous articles on how to defeat U.S. Navy carrier task forces. For
example, China is known to be developing terminal guidance systems for its
ballistic missiles. This would enable a Chinese ballistic missile to be fired
to an area, about a hundred kilometers in diameter, believed to contains an
American carrier. If the carrier was there, the conventional warhead would come
right down on the carrier. For this kind of job, the ballistic missile could
use an armor piercing (non-explosive) warhead. At the high speed of an ballistic
missile warhead (several times faster than a rifle bullet) plunging back to
earth, the damage to the carrier would be enormous. At the very least, flight
operations would be halted. This tactic
is not new, both the United States, and the defunct Soviet Union worked on the
technical aspects of this.
Chinese officers also discuss the use of
high-altitude nuclear explosions to produce an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that
would damage communications on U.S. warships below. By using EMP at sea, there
would be less damage to civilian infrastructure. China also appears to be
continuing work on anti-satellite satellites. China is already a major player
in the Internet warfare area, and is believed to be actively attacking American
military networks.
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China also discusses using their ballistic
missiles, with conventional warheads,
against headquarters and communications facilities, both on Taiwan, and
American bases in the region. Less often discussed is how China would cope with
similar attacks on its own headquarters and infrastructure. China is also still
at a major disadvantage when it comes to ICBMs. It cannot reach the United
States with any of these, while the U.S. has enough ICBM warheads to obliterate
China. But the bet here is that a vigorous grab for Taiwan would not bring down
an American ICBM attack. So if China can defeat the U.S. Navy in a battle for
Taiwan, a war is won without risking the destruction of China itself.
