In the modern naval warfare system, as the lethality of anti-ship missiles increases, the threat to aircraft carriers also increases. Taking the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as an example, it currently has a number of "anti-aircraft carrier artifacts" such as the "Dongfeng-21D" anti-ship ballistic missile and the "YJ-21" hypersonic anti-ship missile. In this regard, at the recent "2024 Aviation, Space and Cyber" conference, United States Air Force Secretary Frank · Kendall once again talked about the China threat theory. At the same time, Lockheed · Martin also debuted a stealth cruise missile called AGM-158XR at this conference. According to the United States, this missile is tailor-made for conflicts with major powers such as China, and the PLA is simply unable to defend against saturation strikes.
According to the Defense Post of United States, because the AGM-158XR is larger than the U.S. military's active cruise missile, it can carry more fuel, plus it is equipped with lighter materials and more efficient engines, and has a streamlined design, so it has a larger range. Loma has always worked very closely with the United States military, and the reason why the company wants to launch this new missile is because its ace missile AGM-158 series of missiles has been questioned by the United States military. The AGM series is Loma's trump card, taking its first model AGM-158A as an example, which is a highly invisible subsonic air-launched cruise missile, and it came out in the era when the United States military concept advocates "stealth is better than everything", so this missile is popular with the US military.
In terms of performance, the AGM-158A uses various advanced technologies to reduce its infrared and electromagnetic signatures, can penetrate dense air defense nets, and the missile has a warhead weighing 1,000 pounds, and the lethality is very strong, so it has been affirmed by the US military leadership. It's just that after a period of trial, the United States Air Force found fault with it, because its range is only less than 400 kilometers, and when confronting major powers such as China and Russia, this missile obviously cannot exert its power.
Among the active equipment of the US military, the "Tomahawk" cruise missile has a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, and in addition to the low cost, it is purchased by the US military in large quantities. However, the "Tomahawk" has an Achilles' heel, that is, it is too slow, which leads to the opponent's radar and other tracking technology can capture the target in time, which makes its surprise strike effect disappear. Relatively speaking, the speed of the AGM-158 is almost twice that of the Tomahawk cruise missile, and its penetration capability is very strong. Based on feedback from the United States Air Force, Loma upgraded to an XR version based on the AGM-158, allowing it to gain an ultra-long range of more than 1,600 kilometers. It has strong stealth and penetration capabilities, and the US military also plans to disguise the transport aircraft as a passenger plane to launch an attack under the premise that the opponent is defenseless, which makes the AGM-158XR missile even more unguardable.
Especially when it comes to large warships such as aircraft carriers at sea, it does have the potential to become a "new spear" that United States targets Chinese aircraft carriers. According to Loma, there is no need to reopen the production line after upgrading the missiles, and the production of 1,100 missiles of this series can be ensured by using the original AGM-158 production line, which makes the US military top brass happy.
Although in terms of performance and tactics, the US military's new missile will indeed pose a threat to the PLA's aircraft carriers, this tactics need to be based on saturation strikes. With the current United States military production capacity, even if the production of AGM-158 missiles is accelerated, it will be difficult to quickly make up for the gap between China and the United States in the number of anti-ship weapons. Especially affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, United States has changed its strategic concept of "containing China" in the Indo-Pacific region, and has paid more attention to cost-effectiveness in military strategy. To put it simply, the U.S. military simply does not have enough budget to procure such expensive missiles. Therefore, there is still a question mark over whether this order of Loma can be completed.
Taking a step back, even if the US military is equipped with AGM-158XR missiles, the PLA is not helpless. At present, the PLA already has an all-round and three-dimensional defense network. When the AGM-158XR is flying at high altitude, it is easy to be captured by our satellite monitoring, and then its trajectory can be deduced, so that the PLA can respond in time. For the Chinese Navy in particular, in the future, including aircraft carriers and large destroyers, it is necessary to further improve the radar network and make a good plan through regular exercises; as more anti-missile technological achievements are applied on the mainland, the so-called "new spear" will not be able to break our air defense shield.