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Japan’s Carrier-Killing Missile.
by KYLE MIZOKAMI
By now you might have read about the Chinese DF-21 Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile, the "supposed killer" of American aircraft carriers.
Now meet XASM-3, the killer of Chinese aircraft carriers.
Asian Defence has the pics. The diagrams are apparently taken from a South Korean Website. Jane’s also has a short writeup.
XASM-3 is stealthy. It’s supersonic, and has a range of 200 kilometers. I can’t find anything in the way of dimensions or warhead size. It looks slightly longer than a Harpoon slung on an F-16.
The XASM-3 represents a quantum leap in maritime firepower for the Japanese Self-Defense Force.
The predecessor to the XASM-3, the ASM-2, first came into service in 1998. Development of the new missile apparently started in the early 2000s. Japan tends to replace weapons systems fairly quickly, but that is a very short turnaround. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was when speculation first started as to whether or not China would develop aircraft carriers.
Japan may not have a nuclear deterrent, but there are some critical conventional capabilities that Japan should invest in as a deterrent. This is one of them.
Japan does not have to match Chinese carriers with Japanese carriers, because there is no policy that drives a need for them. Japan merely needs a cost-effective way to kill Chinese carriers.
Originally published in Japan Security Watch.

by KYLE MIZOKAMI
By now you might have read about the Chinese DF-21 Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile, the "supposed killer" of American aircraft carriers.
Now meet XASM-3, the killer of Chinese aircraft carriers.
Asian Defence has the pics. The diagrams are apparently taken from a South Korean Website. Jane’s also has a short writeup.
XASM-3 is stealthy. It’s supersonic, and has a range of 200 kilometers. I can’t find anything in the way of dimensions or warhead size. It looks slightly longer than a Harpoon slung on an F-16.
The XASM-3 represents a quantum leap in maritime firepower for the Japanese Self-Defense Force.
The predecessor to the XASM-3, the ASM-2, first came into service in 1998. Development of the new missile apparently started in the early 2000s. Japan tends to replace weapons systems fairly quickly, but that is a very short turnaround. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was when speculation first started as to whether or not China would develop aircraft carriers.
Japan may not have a nuclear deterrent, but there are some critical conventional capabilities that Japan should invest in as a deterrent. This is one of them.
Japan does not have to match Chinese carriers with Japanese carriers, because there is no policy that drives a need for them. Japan merely needs a cost-effective way to kill Chinese carriers.
Originally published in Japan Security Watch.