One of the photos of China's new anti-ship missile floating around the Internet. (Photo : Want China Times)
Photos are surfacing on the Internet showing China’s new type of anti-ship missile known as the YJ-18 accompanied by a transporter erector launch vehicle on the streets of an unknown location in China, according to a report by the Want China Times, citing a piece by the National Interest Magazine.
The new transporter erector launch vehicle has similarities with its previous version, which was capable of launching the CJ-10 land attack cruise missile.
According to Jeffrey Lin and PW Singer of the Eastern Arsenal blog that monitors the development of Chinese armed forces, the newer iteration of the launch vehicle is much bigger than its predecessor.
It has a satellite communications dome, indicating a sophisticated missile system that requires higher bandwidth for data links and seamless transfer of information. In addition, the new vehicle has only two canisters for carrying missiles, but are significantly larger compared to a previous design.
Lin and Singer posit that the nine-to-10-meter-long canisters are intended to be paired with China's new YJ-18 anti-ship missile.
Designed after Russia's Klub missile, which is approximately nine meters long, the new missile is estimated to have a range of 290 miles, more than double the range of the SSN-27 Klub anti-ship cruise missile.
Given that calculations are correct, the YJ-18 will have four times the range of anti-ship cruise missiles of PLA submarines, said Lyle Goldstein, an associate professor from the China Maritime Studies Institute of the U.S. Naval War College.
Goldstein estimated that the supersonic missile is able to reach a top speed Mach 2.5 to Mach 3.
