Designed specifically to destroy US aircraft carriers, the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is one of China’s key anti-access area denial weapons. However, how it would work exactly has been a matter of debate since it reached initial operating capacity in 2010.
China is the first country to develop an ASBM after it modified the standard road-mobile DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile.
Now China’s military appears more than capable of penetrating an aircraft carrier’s battlespace with a combination of air-, submarine- and surface ship-launched anti-ship YJ-series cruise missiles, not to forget the varieties of torpedoes available to its submarine force. Of particular