US says China is conducting intensive tests of the DF-27 missile, aiming to sink US aircraft carrier battle groups, with the only weakness in space!
Recently, several US military intelligence agencies and observation media have continuously released reports stating that China is accelerating the practical deployment of a new medium-range hypersonic missile - referred to by the outside world as the "DF-27" - According to satellite images, test flight trajectory analysis, and equipment feature comparisons, more and more evidence indicates that this missile has not only entered a phase of intensive testing, but may have already initially formed combat capability.
More importantly, the DF-27 is not a traditional ballistic missile, but a new type of weapon equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). These vehicles can perform lateral maneuvers after re-entering the atmosphere, maintaining speeds above 5 Mach, far exceeding the interception capabilities of existing ship-based anti-missile systems (such as the "Standard-3" or "Standard-6").
A simulation exercise conducted by the US Naval War College in 2024 showed that when facing high-speed anti-ship warheads with terminal maneuverability, the interception success rate of the "Aegis" system on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers was less than 20%.
However, the article argues that this long-range precision strike capability has a critical prerequisite: it must obtain real-time information about the position of the aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier is not a fixed target; it moves at 30 knots (approximately 55 km/h) across the ocean, changing its position by tens of kilometers per hour.
To achieve "detect and destroy immediately," a comprehensive sensing network consisting of space-based reconnaissance satellites, maritime surveillance radars, electronic reconnaissance aircraft, and long-endurance drones is needed. Currently, China has established a near-real-time maritime surveillance system composed of the "Jilin No.1", "Remote Sensing" series, and "Tianlian" relay satellites. Some low-orbit optical satellites have a resolution of 0.5 meters, which is sufficient to identify the outline of an aircraft carrier's deck.
However, this is also the biggest weakness of the DF-27 system - it relies heavily on space assets. If during wartime, the US disables some of China's reconnaissance satellites through anti-satellite weapons (such as the SM-3 Block IIA modified type or ground-based laser interference systems), or implements large-scale electronic jamming to block the data link, the missile could become "blind." For this reason, China is also developing alternative methods simultaneously.
For example, the recently exposed "Shen Diao" twin-hull high-altitude long-endurance drone has the characteristics of large payload and long endurance, and can continuously track fleets outside the enemy's air defense zone. In addition, it is also experimenting with multi-source fusion algorithms to integrate non-traditional intelligence sources such as commercial satellites, fishing vessel AIS signals, and even social media geographic tags to enhance the redundancy of target positioning.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1849363844602892/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.