China Threatens US: Carriers vs. DF-26 “Carrier-Killer” Anti-Ship Missile

By Logan Williams, Warrior Editorial Fellow

A week ago, the USS Carl Vinson began to conduct naval exercises with the Philippine Navy. These naval exercises are a part of the trajectory of improving relations and increased closeness between the United States’ and the Phillipines, in the face of the ever-increasing Chinese threat. It was not too long ago that the headlines lauded another harbinger of the great progress between these two nations, in April 2023, when it was announced that the Phillipines had agreed to offer the United States several military bases on their territory.

China, of course, became incensed by the United States’ efforts to protect its friends and partners in the region.

In the geopolitical equivalent of a temper tantrum, the PRC tasked a class-570 frigate named the Huangshan to keep tabs on the United States’ and Phillipines’ Navy vessels, in an attempt to assert its claims within the “South China Sea.” A Global Times report, claimed that the United States’ fears “the Chinese military’s capabilities in targeting large moving warships on its doorstep, which significantly reduces the survivability of aircraft carriers.” The Global Times is a PRC government-owned publication, that is used to present the PRC’s official government positions, and the quoted “capabilities in targeting large moving warships” is a reference to China’s much-touted anti-ship ballistic missile capability.

USS Ford Aircraft Carrier CopyCat

Business Insider reported, on January 5th, 2024, that the PRC had built a massive replica of the United States’ Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers in the desert, to test its anti-ship missiles.

Anti-ship missiles (AShM) have existed for a long time, almost every serious military in the world possesses an anti-ship missile, or another classification of missile that possesses secondary anti-ship capabilities — not just China.

As with all other missiles, AShMs are divided into two categories: cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.