Missile Dodgeball: The U.S. Navy vs. China’s ‘Carrier Killers’

Christian Baghai
4 min readOct 11, 2024

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So here we are, folks. The U.S. Navy is playing a high-stakes game of dodgeball with China. But instead of rubber balls, they’re dodging China’s new fancy toys — the DF-21, DF-26, and YJ-21 missiles. The Chinese are cranking these things out like they’re on a missile-making marathon. And they’ve got nicknames too — “carrier killers.” Catchy, right? These beauties can strike over 2,000 miles away. So China’s essentially playing Battleship, while we’re just looking for a parking spot.

Now, how does the Navy respond? Simple: they make these missiles as useful as a screen door on a submarine. It all starts with “disrupting the kill chain.” Now, that sounds like a Metallica album, but it’s military-speak for “confuse the hell out of the enemy.” The Navy’s got radars jamming, signals spoofing, and decoys flying everywhere. It’s like a giant game of “Now you see me, now you don’t,” except with billion-dollar equipment. So, these missiles are out there, wondering, “Is that a ship? Or just another decoy?” Here’s a hint: it’s a decoy.

But that’s only the beginning. The Navy’s got a “layered defense system.” Yeah, that’s right — layered. Like a seven-layer dip, only with fewer calories and way more firepower. First layer? Soft kills. They’re talking about radar-opaque clouds, which are like big, floating smoke screens to blind enemy radar. Next up? Hard kills. They’re firing SM-3 and SM-6 missiles to intercept the incoming rockets. You know, the “kill them before they kill us” strategy. Old-school logic, but hey, who’s arguing when you’re blowing up missiles mid-flight?

And then there’s the high-tech stuff — electromagnetic warfare. The Navy’s essentially become a giant, seafaring magician, making ships disappear right in front of China’s eyes. They’re controlling emissions, jamming signals, even dropping carbon fiber clouds. Carbon fiber clouds! Like regular clouds, but way cooler. You wonder how they come up with this stuff? It’s easy — they don’t want to be target practice.

Here’s the kicker: sometimes, the best defense is a good offense. So what’s the Navy doing? They’re building their own hypersonic missiles to knock out Chinese launch sites before they can get a shot off. Imagine a chess game where the Navy just decides to torch the board. They’re aiming at those Type 055 destroyers and mobile launchers for these missiles. They call it “distributed lethality.” That’s a fancy way of saying they’re spreading out to make it harder to hit them. Just like ants at a picnic — messy, but effective.

And if that wasn’t enough, they’ve got satellites up there, watching for anything that even remotely looks like a missile launch. Hypersonics? They don’t exactly come with a “please hold” message. These things move faster than a Ferrari on steroids. So, the Navy’s setting up a system to spot them the second they take off. If that doesn’t sound like sci-fi, I don’t know what does.

So, there you have it. The Navy’s throwing every trick in the book at this — decoys, jammers, interceptors, and even good ol’ sneak attacks. It’s a cat-and-mouse game where the cat’s got a $12 billion budget, and the mouse is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. China might be firing off these “carrier killers,” but the U.S. Navy’s not about to take it lying down. It’s the classic American way: more tech, more money, and a whole lot of attitude.

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