At November’s biennial air show in the southern city of Zhuhai, the biggest state-owned missile maker, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Ltd, screened an animation showing a hostile “blue force,” comprising an aircraft carrier, escort ships and strike aircraft, approaching “red force” territory.
On a giant screen, the animation showed a barrage of the Chinese company’s missiles launched from “red force” warships, submarines, shore batteries and aircraft wreaking havoc on the escort vessels around the carrier. In a final salvo, two missiles plunge onto the flight deck of the carrier and a third slams into the side of the hull near the bow.
That worry is what prompted my old article accepted for publication a couple decades ago but not published by Proceedings which I published on TDR here.
Of course, China might be misleading us. Maybe all those missiles are primarily intended to put nuclear warheads on them to rapidly expand China's nuclear force. Not that most couldn't be used for the advertised anti-ship purpose. But maybe that open claim disguises the nuclear angle which is actually a higher priority for China given Russia's many theater-range nuclear weapons that can reach China.
Or maybe the anti-ship missiles are really intended for use against India (or Russia?).
But if the Chinese do think of their missile force as primarily intended to hit the United States Navy and overwhelm our missile defenses as the initial article notes, maybe the Navy should adapt my modularized auxiliary cruiser idea for the Army (see my Military Review article) to build ABM Queen ships filled with Navy anti-missile missiles to escort our fleet as it approaches China's shores.
UPDATE: This seems related:
On China's nuclear forces, Ashley stated: "Over the next decade, China is likely to at least double the size of its nuclear stockpile in the course of implementing the most rapid expansion and diversification of its nuclear arsenal in China's history."
The three-star general noted that last year alone China conducted more ballistic missile tests in developing and training than those carried out by the rest of the world combined.
Also, we have no real idea of how many nukes China has. The "several hundred" estimate has been around for as long as I can remember.
