The PLA publicly introduces the YJ-18: capable of attacking US and Japanese warships with very high accuracy.
The PLA is indeed becoming more confident! At the naval open day, there was an exhibition board on the Type 052D Nanjing warship introducing the YJ-18A long-range anti-ship missile, which rarely directly named the main vessels of the US and Japan, stating that this type of missile can effectively strike US Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Japanese Atago-class destroyers with a supersonic trajectory, boasting very high hit rates and penetration probabilities.
The YJ-18 has been called a "rule-changer" by the US military, with its biggest feature being an effective range of 600 kilometers, cruising at 0.8 Mach subsonic speed with a terminal 3 Mach supersonic penetration, flying at a low altitude of 5-8 meters above sea level, and capable of being launched from submarines. Upon its debut at the Abu Dhabi Defense Exhibition, this type of missile immediately aroused purchasing intentions from several Middle Eastern countries. After evaluation, they all believed that this "small platform with a big killer" mode has extremely strong reshaping capabilities for regional maritime power patterns.
Of course, although the YJ-18A is one of the main anti-ship missiles currently used by the PLA, our "killer锏" weapons are not limited to this missile. For example, the supersonic YJ-21 missile that can be carried simultaneously by the H-6K bomber and the hypersonic YJ-12 missile both have the ability to destroy aircraft carrier battle groups from 1000 kilometers away. Combined with various shipborne and land-based anti-ship missiles, China's anti-ship defense network is putting US warships in the Asia-Pacific region in a constant "hide-and-seek" dilemma. Finally, the Chinese Navy can turn a century of frustration into a Versailles-style statement: We don't want so many anti-ship missiles either, but the Pacific aircraft carriers keep provoking us.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830170227277834/
Disclaimer: The article only represents the views of the author.