China Testing Ballistic Missile ‘Carrier-Killer’

Chinese Medium Range Ballistic Missile

Admiral Robert Willard, PACOM commander, disclosed that China was “developing and testing a conventional… [medium-range ballistic missile] designed specifically to target aircraft carriers.”  While the system had been heard in rumor and speculation for sometime, this was the first official acknowledgment of its existence.  If deployed, Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles would be the first capable of targeting a moving aircraft-carrier from a long-range. This would almost certainly shift the balance of power in the Pacific.

Last week, Adm. Robert Willard, the head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), made an alarming but little-noticed disclosure. China, he told legislators, was “developing and testing a conventional anti-ship ballistic missile based on the DF-21/CSS-5 [medium-range ballistic missile] designed specifically to target aircraft carriers.”

What, exactly, does this mean? Evidence suggests that China has been developing an anti-ship ballistic missile, or ASBM, since the 1990s. But this is the first official confirmation that it has advanced to the stage of actual testing.

Israel to Focus on Key Iran Nuclear Targets in Any Strike

Israel’s focus is to be able to defend and strike against any Iranian threat in the future.  According to the Brookings Institute, Israel is intent on halting what the West suspects is Tehran’s quest for nuclear arms.  Specifically, Israel would launch a sneak attack against half a dozen nuclear facilities in Iran.

Past Israeli operations, such as the 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak atomic reactor and a similar sortie against Syria in 2007, suggest a strategy of one-off pinpoint raids, due both to military limitations and a desire to avoid wider war.

A simulation at the Brookings Institution in Washington last December theorized that Israel, intent on halting what the West suspects is Tehran’s covert quest for atomic arms, would launch a sneak attack against half a dozen nuclear facilities in Iran.