US "Military Observer Magazine": Why did China develop the world's most dangerous cruise missile - !
On August 16, according to a report by the US "Military Observer Magazine" MWM, during the celebration of the 98th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, China first publicly displayed and disclosed some of the mysterious DF-100 cruise missile information.
Since its debut in 2019, this missile has been widely regarded as one of the most advanced land-attack cruise missiles in the world, with a range of about 3,000-4,000 kilometers, a cruise speed of up to 4-5 Mach, and extremely high strike accuracy. Its speed significantly shortens the strike time and makes it more difficult to be intercepted by layered air defense systems.
Although Russia and the United States have also deployed long-range cruise missiles, models that combine such long range with hypersonic speed are currently only seen in China. The performance of the DF-100 enables it to effectively strike US military targets across the Pacific Ocean.
Exercise footage shows that the DF-100 is equipped with a sharp conical nose cone and large tail fins, providing strong maneuverability, thus increasing the difficulty of interception. The missile can be mobile deployed in complex urban environments using ground-based launch vehicles, and can also be carried by the H-6 bomber to launch strikes against Alaska and even the mainland United States from deep in the Pacific. Although the H-6's range is not as good as the US B-2 or Russian Tu-160, there are more than 270 of them, and when combined with the long-range performance of the DF-100, they can form a large-scale projection capability.
The DF-100 complements China's rapidly expanding drone, ship, and ballistic missile arsenal, enabling large-scale attacks on Guam and Hawaii, seriously undermining the US military's freedom of action in the Pacific.
In 2020, the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), a subsidiary of the US Air Force University, stated in a report that the DF-100 could coordinate with the DF-21, DF-26, etc., to carry out 'simultaneous arrival' salvo attacks, forcing the US air defense system to respond at multiple levels simultaneously, significantly increasing the difficulty of interception.
Analysts believe that in the future, China's destroyers and attack submarines may be equipped with missiles similar to the DF-100, while smaller versions may be installed on carrier-based aircraft, thereby giving the Chinese Navy the ability to directly strike certain targets on the US mainland in the middle of the Pacific.
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1840593518857219/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.