Anti-ship missiles aren't a monopoly for Peking:
While the U.S. Navy is diligently working on robotic strike aircraft (the X-47 series), there is also an effort to develop autonomous hunter-killer missiles that can seek out targets without remote control and in the midst of enemy countermeasures (electronic and otherwise). The primary effort is the LRASM (Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile) which recently underwent its first field test. A LRASM was launched from a B-1B bomber and sent off in the direction where three destroyer size unmanned ships were moving about. LRASM flew via GPS waypoints for several hundred kilometers and then began flying a search pattern, seeking electronic or visual signs of one of the target ships. One was found and LRASM, armed with an inert warhead hit it.
We are also building a version that can fit in the vertical launch tubes on our surface ships.
If China initiates a war, they will no doubt get in some good shots by taking advantage of the fact that China can mass their assets against our relatively few forward deployed assets. But after that, we will begin to seriously fight with our gathered power.
