A formidable threat to the US Navy’s prized flattop fleet, China’s infamous anti-ship Dong-Feng 21 missile has been nicknamed the “carrier killer“; Dongfeng means “east wind” in Chinese.
First introduced to service in 1991, the DF-21 is a medium-range ballistic missile with several versions, including a newer conventional anti-ship variant that could pose a threat to aircraft carriers over 1,000 miles from shore.
About the size of a city bus, the high-speed missile has a terminal homing warhead — accurate within about 65 feet of its target — that is powerful enough to at least inflict a “mission kill,” damaging a carrier enough to disable flight operations, according to Air Force Magazine.
The missile poses a serious threat to the US Navy’s fleet, but naval fighters like F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35C Lighting fighters can also counter it.
US Navy Rear Adm. Carlos Sardiello, commander of the Carl Vinson carrier strike group, said he was confident his ships and squadrons could “operate these complex, contested domains and be lethal and survivable, and execute the mission regardless of what the threat is.”