The recent announcement that China is deploying nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines is alarming, writes Harry J. Kazianis a Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Center for the National Interest,
at The Daily Signal.
Yes, Kazianis notes, the United States developed such technology in the 1950s, but the Chinese aren't simply playing catch-up.
"Indeed, China’s development of nuclear submarines is part of a bigger, more worrying trend," he writes. "The creation of a truly modern military that, in many respects, aims to defeat America’s armed forces if conflict were ever to occur."
Even more frightening, he says, Beijing looks to be getting close to developing cutting-edges weapons systems that seem like science fiction.
Among China's projects:
- Its first aircraft carrier made from a scrapped ex-Soviet hull.
- Multiple types of fifth-generation stealth fighters.
- Advanced air-defense systems that could outsmart American stealth aircraft.
- Anti-satellite weapons.
It also has developed two types of so-called "carrier-killer" ballistic missiles which are the first deployed by any military. It is mobile, which makes it hard to detect, and, when launched, is guided by advanced radar, satellites and other means.
Some reports indicated it has a maneuverable warhead (MaRV) that may make it able to defeat the missile defense systems of the United States and its allies.
"It strikes its target at speeds of Mach ten and beyond," Kazianis writes. "And even more frightening, a new version of this weapon now holds the ability to attack vessels possibly as far as 2,500 miles away."
Kazianis said China has tested a hypersonic weapon as well that could carry a conventional or nuclear warhead.
These weapons, combined with its building of man-made islands in the South China Sead, can allow China's navy to control the waters and the air in the Asia region "as U.S. military service personnel pull parts off of museum planes to keep their jets in the air," Kazianis says.
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