In the impression of many people, China has surpassed the United States in terms of the platform of surface ships because it has a 0.55 million ton drive, but it is still inferior to the United States in the richness of shipborne missile weapons. For example, the United States generally equips destroyers and cruisers with Tomahawk cruise missiles for land attack and Standard-3 anti-missile missiles with kinetic interception technology. However, China equipped the 055 with hypersonic anti-ship missiles before the United States, opening the curtain on the ship-based vertical missiles to overtake the US military.
In the past few days, CCTV's "Weapons Face-to-Face" column has come with a very surprising news: while retaining the basic long-range air defense, anti-ship and regional anti-submarine capabilities, the improved 052D has further expanded its long-range ground attack, sea-based anti-missile and ultra-long-range anti-ship capabilities. Released video footage shows a missile similar in appearance to the YJ-18 taking to the skies. This almost means that China has begun to deploy three new weapons in the vertical launch system equipped with 052DL: the YJ-18 cruise missile for land attack, the Haihongqi X anti-missile missile and the hypersonic ultra-long-range anti-ship missile, thus making up for the gap between China's main warships and the United States in terms of missile categories, and completing the overtaking.
Today, we will focus on the significance of the installation of the YJ-18 land-attack cruise missile. YJ-18 belongs to China's fourth-generation anti-ship missile, with a maximum range of 600 kilometers, and it is also a very rare sub-super combined anti-ship missile in the world. The magic of this weapon is that it can fly close to the surface of the sea, like a subsonic cruise missile, avoiding detection by the opposing ship's radar at a greater distance. Once it gets close to the opposing warship for dozens of kilometers, it will throw off the subsonic propulsion device and activate the supersonic penetration attack mode at the end. Because its terminal flight speed is close to Mach 3 and it adopts a low-trajectory penetration mode close to the sea surface, it is very difficult for the opponent's warship to organize defenses.
The land-attack cruise missile mentioned by CCTV this time is considered to be an improved product of the YJ-18. That is, to abandon the supersonic penetration module at the end and replace it with a cruise missile that flies at ultra-low altitude throughout the whole process, or to retain the supersonic burst at the end. The US military's sea-based Tomahawk has a range of 1800 km, and the vertical hair system used to launch the Tomahawk is not as thick as the Chinese 052D. This also means that the YJ-18 land-attack cruise missile chooses to be subsonic throughout the whole process, with a range of at least 1,500 kilometers.
This begs the question: what is the point of China's 055 and 052D starting to install land-attack cruise missiles?
First, for the first time, China will have a land attack weapon that can be deployed in the world's oceans. The YJ-18's range of about 2,000 kilometers has created conditions for the Chinese Navy to strike at targets in depth in hostile countries. In the past, the global deployment of US warships was a deterrent because of the presence of sea-based Tomahawks, and China can certainly do it in the future.
Second, from the perspective of China's completion of reunification, warships carrying land-attack cruise missiles can form a tremendous deterrent against targets in the eastern part of Taiwan Island and targets on Guam in the western Pacific Ocean, increasing the difficulty of the adversary's tactical defense. Although we have repeatedly stated in past programs that the penetration capability of subsonic cruise missiles is not strong, the YJ-18 is still a very effective medium and long-range strike weapon after the PLA Rocket Force completes the strike mission against the enemy's air defense system.
Third, from the perspective of Sino-US military competition, China's 052D began to deploy land-attack cruise missiles and anti-missile missiles, which is equivalent to cracking another psychological advantage of the US military. The competition between China and the United States in military science and technology does not mean that the two countries will definitely fight, but that the US Navy also has what we have, and there are better ones, so that we can convey more anxiety to the Americans.
Overall, CCTV confirmed that the 052D has acquired anti-missile, land-attack and ultra-long-range anti-ship capabilities, which largely confirms that Chinese warships have caught up with or even surpassed the reality of the US military in almost all areas. More importantly, our 055 and 052DL will still be dumplings in the future, and such capabilities will inevitably subvert the US maritime military hegemony.