US Navy carriers deploy advanced defenses, countering China's long-range hypersonic missiles. The Pentagon assesses vulnerability, enhancing layered ship protection systems.
by Kris Osborn, Warrior
The often debated question about whether Chinese hypersonic and anti-ship missiles make US Navy aircraft carriers obsolete or rendered ineffective is again surfacing with renewed vigor.
This question of carrier vulnerability is by no means new, and needs to be viewed within the broader context of China’s hypersonic arsenal, yet speculation and reactive analysis has taken a familiar tone. The idea is as simple as it is potentially concerning for the Pentagon, as it is based upon the supposition that China’s often discussed “carrier-killer” anti-ship cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons could effectively target and destroy U.S. Navy carriers out to ranges of 2,000 miles or more off the coast of mainland China. Specifically, the DF-26 anti-ship missile is said by Chinese state-backed media to be capable of hitting targets with precision out to 2,000 miles.
In an operational sense, or simply within the broader deterrence equation throughout the Pacific, the key question seems to be whether U.S. Navy carriers could deploy effectively in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait or Sea of Japan.
Chinese Arsenal
China’s DF-17 hypersonic weapon is cited by the Chinese media as being able to travel up to 2,000-miles at Mach 10. China also operates surface warship launched hypersonic weapons such as its YJ-21 which has been fired from the the PLA Navy’s Type O55 Destroyer in recent years. An air-launched YJ-21 has also armed its H-6K bomber. In total, even a cursory look at China’s expanding arsenal of hypersonic and guided ballistic missiles would indeed indicate a fast growing threat, particularly given that several never-before-seen Chinese hypersonic weapons were put on display in September, 2025 during its parade.
This tactical or strategic possibility or risk has been on the Pentagon’s radar for quite some time, and general comments about the leaked report seem to suggest that wargames and computer simulations of a U,S.-China engagement in the Pacific reinforced this ongoing concern that carriers could be destroyed quickly by Chinese missiles.
US Navy Layered Ship Defenses
Sinking a carrier with an anti-ship missile seems clear enough, yet the actual task of “hitting” and “disabling” a well-defended carrier 2,000 miles off the coast requires precision, guidance, targeting and “hardened” sensors. All of these variables, including potential space connectivity, in-flight maneuvering for hypersonics and built-in precision-guidance sensors on the missiles themselves need to operate with one another in a seamless, synchronized fashion and, perhaps most of all, they need to elude a vast network of layered ship defenses.
U.S. Navy carriers in the Pacific travel with protective Carrier Strike Groups including cruisers and destroyers armed with integrated ship defenses to include Aegis radar networked with drones, satellites and fixed-wing surveillance aircraft able to “detect” approaching weapons from beyond the horizon. Carrier Strike Groups operate with both kinetic and non-kinetic defenses to include missiles, laserNavy ships operate with long-range interceptors such as the SM-3 Block IIA which can intercept ICBMs as they re-enter the earth’s atmosphere in the terminal phase. Then there are closer-in interceptors such as the SM-6 or sea skimming defensive missiles such as the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block 2 able to track and destroy cruise missiles flying closer to the surface of the ocean.
Beyond the Horizon
Navy destroyers also operate an integrated system called Naval Integrated Fire Control - Counter Air (NIFC-CA), wherein a gateway aerial node such as a E2D Hawkeye surveillance plane or F-35 transmit sensor data to ship-based radar and fire control from beyond the horizon. With NIFC-CA, ship commanders have a much longer time window through which to detect incoming threats and decide upon an optimal countermeasure; the system connect a ship-based SM-6 interceptor with Aegis radar and ship fire control to launch a defensive weapon earlier in the trajectory or flight path of an approaching missile.
The largest and perhaps most significant ship defenses are arguably those in the non-kinetic family such High-Powered Microwave or EW systems which can potentially identify and “jam” or “disable” the guidance system of an incoming anti-ship missile.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University