On September 3, 2015, at the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Anti-Japanese War, the DF-26, a medium-range ballistic missile with anti-aircraft carrier performance, made its first public appearance and caused a sensation in the global military circles.
Although the DF-26 has not yet had a chance to fight in actual combat, and is used to attack large mobile targets at sea, including aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, amphibious assault ships, and other large mobile targets at sea, reports by domestic and foreign media reports, reports by foreign think tank analysts, and disclosures in special articles on military websites, all reveal that this medium- and long-range ballistic missile has undoubtedly become an anti-aircraft carrier "big killer" equipped by our rocket force.
DF-26, it is reported that it has a strike range of at least 4,500 kilometers, a hypersonic flight speed of Mach 18, and it is extremely difficult to intercept the world's active air defense and anti-missile systems.
Its warhead can be nuclear or conventionally charged, and it belongs to the kind of new serialized missile weapons that integrate deterrence and warfare and have both nuclear and conventional weapons, and have become the backbone and core force of our rocket force's medium- and long-range strike weapons.
In the "White Paper on China's National Defense in the New Era", the name of the DF-26 ballistic missile is impressively listed, which is enough to see its important position and role in the continental defense system, and has become an extremely important "killer" mobile combat weapon against land and sea targets in the anti-access/area denial combat system of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
According to the sand table deduction of the well-known foreign think tank RAND Corporation, when the aircraft carrier sailing at sea is deployed at a high speed of 30 knots, the probability of hitting one DF-21D or DF-26B is about 16.7%-20%. And as our rocket forces launch more anti-ship ballistic missiles, the probability of the aircraft carrier being hit will increase significantly.
According to open-source information, the two major military powers, the United States and Russia, are bound by the "Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty" signed during the Cold War, and both sides have to destroy short-range missiles with a range of 500-1,000 kilometers and medium-range missiles with a range of 1,000-5,500 kilometers.
Britain and France, the two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, can also be called global nuclear powers to a certain extent, and they have not developed and equipped medium-range ballistic missiles capable of anti-land targets and anti-sea targets, so the Dongfeng-26 belongs to the existence of "one of a kind" in the global military circles, far ahead of the range of 2,500 kilometers equipped by our rocket force, and also has the Dongfeng-21D medium-range ballistic missile capable of attacking land targets and anti-aircraft carriers.
Dongfeng-26, precisely because of its nuclear and conventional capabilities, can not only hit high-value targets on land, but also attack targets moving at sea, so it is called a "weapon system that subverts the rules of the game" by the outside world, and only our rocket force in the world is equipped with anti-ship ballistic missiles that can hit land targets and sea targets at a distance of 4,500 kilometers.
This anti-ship blade equipped by our rocket force has the characteristics of all-weather, unsupported, and strong penetration, and can carry out precise strikes on medium and long-range targets, and has greatly improved its missile performance and penetration capability compared with other types of conventional missiles.
Harbin Institute of Technology's science and technology equipment exhibition hall has now been officially opened to the public, some enthusiastic netizens took pictures of the model of the Dongfeng-26 ballistic missile, as well as the text content displayed on the display board, and uploaded it to the Internet, causing a large number of netizens to watch.
The DF-26 is available in three different models. Among them, Type A is a nuclear warhead type, Type B is an anti-ship type, and Type C is a conventional charge type. This is the Dongfeng-21D anti-ship ballistic missile equipped with our rocket force, and it is the second anti-ship ballistic missile in service in the world.
As a medium-range ballistic missile, the DF-26 combines tactical and strategic value, and is a rare and cutting-edge equipment in the world. The "important weapon of the country" of our rocket army is generally not easily revealed.
At the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the DF-26 pulled out by our rocket army and integrated on the transporter integrated for delivery, maintenance and launch was wrapped in a heavy launch canister shell. It is rare for netizens to see this anti-ship ballistic missile erected from the launch canister, in a state of waiting to be launched or in a state of launch.
Now, the rare picture of the launch of this anti-ship ballistic missile on the Internet has a double-cone aerodynamic appearance, as well as four triangular air rudder surfaces, and the body of the missile is significantly thicker than that of the DF-21D. Based on this, the author of this article has reason to judge that this is the real picture of the launch of the Dongfeng-26B anti-ship ballistic missile that the majority of netizens dreamed of.
In short, the DF-26 medium-range ballistic missile, one of the main equipment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Rocket Force, can carry not only conventional warheads, but also more powerful nuclear warheads, and has three different models. Its firepower is capable of covering Guam and the Diego Garcia Islands, and has enabled our military to strike at large surface ships, including aircraft carriers, in the second island chain and in the depths of the ocean.