China’s ballistic missile system for targeting aircraft carriers

• China has established a novel system for using land-based ballistic missiles to deter America’s powerful nuclear-powered aircraft carriers from coming anywhere near its coast.
• Land-based ballistic missiles, carrying manoeuvrable warheads with conventional munitions, target the aircraft carriers at a distance of about 2,000 km.
• The system “will serve as a credible deterrent" against American intervention in China’s maritime disputes, of which it has several with its Asian neighbours.
• The ASBM had “shaken the traditional view" of the U.S. Navy’s unassailable superiority in the Pacific.
• No one thought it was possible to target moving aircraft carriers with long-range ballistic missiles. 
• The Chinese had come up with “a very innovative system” based on well-understood components.
• China’s constellation of Yaogan military satellites includes those for electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering that detect radio signals and other electronic emissions from an aircraft carrier and its associated warships. 
• China currently has three clusters of ELINT satellites that provide global surveillance.
• In each cluster, there are three satellites that maintain a triangular formation in orbit and can locate ships producing radio signals with an accuracy of 25 km to 100 km.
• The Yaogan constellation also includes radar satellites as well as satellites with optical sensors that can establish the position of the aircraft carriers with much greater accuracy.
• The current Yaogan constellation can provide about 16 targeting opportunities for ballistic missile launches when the uncertainty in an aircraft carrier’s position will be less than 10 km.
• By incorporating over-the-horizon radar that can continually track aircraft carriers up to a distance of about 3,000 km, the Chinese gain the flexibility to launch the ballistic missiles whenever they choose.
• China could modify its proven DF-21 ballistic missile to carry a manoeuverable warhead. 
• With onboard radar, the warhead could, as it is descended through the atmosphere, precisely locate the moving aircraft carrier and then adjust its trajectory to strike the ship with conventional munitions.
• Their analysis of openly accessible images of the DF-21D indicated that this missile variant met the dimensional requirements for such a mission. It could hit ships that were about 2,000 km from the Chinese mainland.
• The Chinese military is known to have successfully tested the ASBM against a land-based simulation of an aircraft carrier

About Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile of India:

• An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military quasiballistic missile system designed to hit a warship at sea. 
• Dhanush, a variant of the surface-to-surface/ship-to-ship Prithvi II missile, has been developed for the Indian Navy. 
• It is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads with pay-load capacity of 500 kg and can strike targets in the range of 350 km. 
• The Missile was test-fired successfully on October 5, 2012 from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast. 
• The Dhanush missile can be used as an anti-ship weapon as well as for destroying land targets depending on the range.