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China’s missile arsenal may soon rival the US. Here are the leading missiles it’s stockpiling for a big fight.

September 28, 20240
A model of DF-21D ballistic missile is on display at an expo in China.

Ma Yue/VCG via Getty Images

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.”

The Guam Express
Vehicles carrying DF-17 missiles seen during a military parade.

GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

China is ahead of Russia and the US in the race to develop hypersonic weapons.

Air defenses project a missile’s flight path and fire interceptors to hit it on that track. But this new class of weapons is designed to defeat them by flying an erratic path after the missile re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

A US senior defense analyst said China has the world’s “leading hypersonic arsenal,” which includes the medium-range Dong Feng-17 ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle.

In service since 2019, the road-mobile missile can be armed with conventional or nuclear warheads. US intelligence estimated that, when equipped with a hypersonic warhead, the DF-17 can reach speeds of Mach 5 to 10 and have a range of up to 1,550 miles.

The missile is key to China’s efforts to deter US intervention in the Asia-Pacific region, and claims that an anti-ship variant is in development.

Meanwhile, the US is still scrambling to field its own hypersonic missile, conducting its first hypersonic weapon test with a hypersonic cruise missile in the Pacific earlier this year.

“Of course, one US test won’t shift China’s hypersonic trajectory, nor will it resolve serious concerns regarding China’s perceived hypersonic edge,” Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told CNN. “But it reaffirms that the US is not just an observer in the hypersonic domain, it’s a formidable player, and one committed to matching pace with China and Russia.”

The US also partnered with Japan, a vital ally in the Pacific, to develop a defense system to counter China’s hypersonic weapons.

Threat to Taiwan
Military vehicles carrying DF-5B intercontinental ballistic missiles were showcased in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

China’s missile arsenal also includes an older-generation international ballistic missile, the Dong Feng-5, capable of carrying nuclear warheads to strike as far as the continental US and Western Europe.

With a range of over 8,000 miles, the silo-based ICBM can be equipped with up to 10 warheads capable of hitting different targets.

In 1980, the PLA test-launched a DF-5 missile into the South Pacific — a rare occurrence as China usually test-fires ballistic missiles in the Bohai Sea or the remote northwest region of Xinjiang.

Off-road global deterrent
Chinese soldiers stand near military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The most advanced intercontinental missile in China’s arsenal is the Dong Feng-41 ICBM, capable of reaching the US and designed for nuclear deterrence.

The DF-41 has a range of up to 9,320 miles, making it China’s longest-range missile, and is reportedly capable of carrying multiple warheads that can hit different targets.

Satellite images taken in 2021 showed more than 100 new silos for nuclear missiles were being built in China, suggesting the country’s efforts to expand its “silo-based force,” according to the Pentagon.

As of October 2022, the PLA has more ICBM launchers than the US, US Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton told lawmakers in February 2023, though he noted that the US military continues to hold the upper hand in nuclear power.

For the first time in over four decades, China on Wednesday test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean. While it’s unclear what missile variant the PLA was testing, the launch could likely be a show of force to the US and its allies and a demonstration of the country’s advancing missile capabilities.

“There is no other potential audience, as China does not expect to have to confront the EU or the UK militarily,” Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, told the Associated Press.