On June 10, when US President Trump visited the Fort Bragg base in North Carolina, the US Army displayed a new "container missile" launch system, attracting widespread attention. This design integrates the launch module of the HIMARS rocket launcher into a standard container, which can be quickly deployed on trucks, freight trains, or commercial ships to achieve strong concealment and high flexibility in "distributed strike" capabilities. However, although this technology seems innovative, it inadvertently provided strategic inspiration for China: any country can convert commercial ships into missile launch platforms in distributed kill chains, a model that could give China an unparalleled advantage in future naval warfare.
According to reports from The War Zone website, the limitations of this American system are also obvious. The current container launcher cannot rotate, and the rockets are not vertically launched, requiring multiple groups of launchers with different orientations to achieve full coverage, increasing deployment complexity. Additionally, it relies on external command control and situational awareness systems, making it difficult for the launcher itself to form a complete kill chain. The US Navy has also tried to deploy similar modular launch systems (such as the "Tiphon" intermediate-range missile system) on commercial ships to compensate for insufficient warship numbers, but the cost is high and integration is difficult, making it unlikely to form scaled combat power in the short term.
China owns the world's largest merchant fleet. According to data from 2024, China controls more than 8,000 ships with a total tonnage ranking first in the world. These ships are mostly designed with standard container loading capacity. If inspired by the American "container missile" concept, they can quickly be converted into low-cost, highly concealed missile launch platforms. Compared to the US Navy's "missile cargo ship" plan, China can utilize existing commercial ship resources through modular modifications to achieve similar functions at much lower costs than building dedicated vessels.
More importantly, China already has a mature mechanism for converting civilian ships into military ones. Our long-term implemented national defense mobilization system clearly stipulates that some civilian ships must have the ability to quickly convert into military platforms. For example, roll-on/roll-off ships and container ships can quickly add weapon modules through preset interfaces, and related drills have been conducted multiple times. In contrast, the militarization of American merchant ships remains at the conceptual stage, lacking systematic planning and practical experience.
In future naval warfare, the key to victory lies in situational awareness, missile performance, and the number of launch platforms. The "A shoots B guides" technology is crucial. China has made significant progress in this area, such as the DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles, combined with the Beidou navigation system and long-range sensor networks, enabling high-precision target positioning and real-time guidance. Early warning aircraft, satellites, drones, and other platforms provide China with powerful situational awareness capabilities, ensuring precise strikes in complex electromagnetic environments. Assuming each modified merchant ship carries 4-12 missiles, hundreds of merchant ships could form thousands of missile strike capabilities, far exceeding the missile reserves of the current US Navy warships.
The display of the US Army's "container missile" seemingly represents technological innovation but actually provided strategic inspiration for China. In the past, US media hyped up Russia's "Club-K" and similar weapons from Iran, claiming they might be used for "surprise attacks" or "violating international law." Now, when the US adopts the same concept but packages it as "flexible deployment" and "deterrence," it exposes its double standards in military technology. This contradictory stance not only undermines America's credibility in international public opinion but also unintentionally points out a low-cost, high-efficiency maritime distributed strike path for China. With the development of situational awareness and missile technology today, the potential of commercial ships as launch platforms will completely change the rules of naval warfare, and China will undoubtedly take the lead in this field.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7517602423356998179/
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