On 8 August, the U.S. Navy announced that USS Gerald R Ford nuclear-powered supercarrier
has successfully completed a third explosive test, marking the completion of the Full Ship
Shock Trials (FSSTs).
This release comes amid rising tension in the disputed South China Sea.
Shock trials are designed to validate the supercarriers' hardness and ability to sustain
operations in a hostile environment. The testes are simulated using live ordnance.
During the four-month testing evolution, the aircraft carrier withstood the impact of three
40,000-pound or 20 tonnes underwater explosions, released at distances progressively closer
to the warship.
In this video Defense Updates analyze why U.S. Navy is not scared of Chinese 'carrier
killer' missiles? Let's get started.
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Nimitz class carriers have been the face of the U.S. Navy and have enabled power projection
far off from the American homeland. USS Nimitz, the lead ship of the Nimitz class
was commissioned in 1975.
The Nimitz class has been able to accommodate many new technologies over the decades, but
the Nimitz design has now reached its threshold and this is where Ford-class comes in.
Ford class supercarriers are being built to replace some of the United States Navy’s
existing Nimitz-class carriers. The first ship of this class is Gerald R. Ford.
Nuclear-powered supercarriers are extremely costly to build and operate, no county currently
possesses such an asset let alone having 10 of these.
Hence, rivals such as China & Russia are deploying asymmetric weapons to counter the American
supercarriers.
China has two missiles that are specifically designed to neutralize supercarriers - DF
21D & DF-26B.
The Dong-Feng 21 is a two-stage, solid fueled, single-warhead medium-range ballistic missile
(MRBM) in the Dong Feng series developed by China Changfeng Mechanics and Electronics
Technology Academy.
The DF-21D developed from DF-21 is said to be the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile
(ASBM). It is thought to employ a maneuverable reentry vehicle (MaRV) with a terminal guidance
system.
This gives it the ability to hit a moving aircraft carrier strike group from long-range.
Reports indicate that it has a speed of around 10 Mach.
According to the U.S. National Air and Space Intelligence Center, the missile has a maximum
range of around 1,450 km or 900 mi. It can carry a 600 kg or about 1350 lbs warhead.
The DF-26 has a range of 4,000 km or 2,500 mi and is thought to be designed to conduct
precision nuclear or conventional strikes. This missile is deemed to have an accuracy
of 100 m CEP. The missile was officially revealed at the
Chinese 2015 parade commemorating the end of the Second World War.
In April 2018, it was officially confirmed that the DF-26 was in service with the People's
Liberation Army Rocket Force.
The missile has a two-stage solid-fueled propulsion system and can accommodate 1,200 kg or about
2,650 lbs warhead. DF-26B developed from DF-26 is the Anti Ship
variant and can hit naval targets.
Capt. Brian Metcalf, manager for the U.S Navy’s future aircraft carrier program office,
“The Navy designed the Ford-class carrier using advanced computer modeling methods,
testing, and analysis to ensure the ships are hardened to withstand harsh battle conditions,"
Metcalf further said, “the tests demonstrated — and proved to the crew, fairly dramatically
— that the ship will be able to withstand formidable shocks and continue to operate
under extreme conditions".
Former Chinese military instructor Song Zhongping stated that besides collecting data, another
reason to announce the successful shock trial of Ford "was to send a message to China and
Russia that the US aircraft carriers have super resilience and they are not worried
about Chinese or Russian conventional anti-ship weapons".
It is important to note the two Chinese missiles DF 21D & DF-26B carry warheads that are approximately
30 and 15 times smaller than what was used in Full Ship Shock Trials.
So, there is no reason to believe that a supercarrier can't absorb multiple indirect hits from this.
Song told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post,
"The 40,000lbs explosive blast was much bigger than any single warhead of a conventional
missile or torpedo…the trial proved the Ford-class aircraft carriers could withstand
some water mines or nearby missile strikes, but did not show their resistance against
a direct hit."
While direct hit cant be simulated, it is to be noted that achieving that is not easy.
Both the missiles will have to be feed with approximate location data from satellite etc
beforehand, terminal guidance can only do limited course correction.
Nimitz & Ford-class carriers are some of the biggest warships to roam the oceans.
But that doesn’t mean they are slow & lumbering, powered by their nuclear reactors they can
move at 35 miles or 56 km per hour.
Though these supercarriers are huge, in an open ocean a carrier is not easy to detect
or track. In 30 minutes after a sighting by an opponent, the area within which a carrier
might be operating will expand to 900 square miles and this will increase to around 4,000
square miles after 60 minutes.
At its maximum range of 1,450 km or 900 mi, DF-21D will take around 7 min to hit the target
and the supercarrier could undertake defense maneuvers including the last moment once to
evade the missile.
Vice Adm. Jeffrey Trussler, the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare,
sometime back said the U.S Navy monitors China’s missile programs including the anti-ship variant
of DF 21 & DF-26 since they are specifically aimed at the U.S Navy
He stated that China can continue spending money on anti-ship ballistic missiles, but
it might not be the capability needed to win if a conflict broke out between the U.S. and
China, indicating that the U.S is confident regarding the capabilities of its key naval
assets to withstand an Anti Missile onslaught.
It is clear from our analysis, that there is merit to this and Chinese DF 21D & DF-26B
are not silver bullets.