China destroyed USS Gerald Ford in wargame simulation

China destroyed USS Gerald Ford in wargame simulation using 20 hypersonic missiles – to prove that America can not defend Taiwan

• China claims to have destroyed the USS Gerald R. Ford with hypersonic missiles
• They said that the simulation demonstrates what could happen if US ships continue to approach an island claimed by China in the South China Sea
• It follows a recently-leaked report that the country has tested a new missile capable of evading U.S. defenses

China claims to have destroyed the world’s largest aircraft carrier in a simulation as tensions between the communist country and the United States continue to rise over the fate of Taiwan.

In a war game simulation, researchers in Beijing were able to down the USS Gerald R. Ford — thought to be unsinkable by conventional weapons — using 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles over the course of 20 battles.

They said in a paper published in the Chinese-language Journal of Test and Management Technology that the simulation demonstrates what could happen if US ships continue to approach an island claimed by China in the South China Sea despite multiple warnings, the South China Morning Post reports.

The report could not be independently verified outside of China and some analysts are questioning why the government would release the findings of a war game.

But it follows a recently-leaked report that the country has tested a new missile capable of evading U.S. defenses.

Chinese researchers said they were able to down the USS Gerald R. Ford — thought to be unsinkable by conventional weapons 

They used 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles from six sites over the course of 20 battles

The USS Gerald R. Ford is equipped with technologies to detect incoming threats, multiple layers of armor and protective systems designed to lessen the impact of missile attacks.

But the researchers in Beijing said they developed a complex three-wave attack designed to deceive and overcome US defense systems, firing some hypersonic missiles all the way from the Gobi Desert.

As a result, the report claimed, nearly every US surface vessel was shattered and eventually sank.

The Chinese researchers said that proves that the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier fleet could be ‘destroyed with certainty’ by a relatively small number of hypersonic strikes.

Still, they warned military leaders and the public to approach the results of the simulation with caution as real-world results may differ.

The report has not been independently verified, and some analysts are now questioning why China would release the results of a war game simulation.

‘Anyone who discusses publicly the outcome of a war game or a simulation has a political objective, especially if they frame the result as a win or a loss,’ Drew Thompson, a former US senior defense official told the Telegraph. 

‘Effective war games are ones that test an assumption, a function, or variable to inform the sponsor of the game about the complex interaction of elements,’ he explained. 

‘War games are not about winning or losing. They are about learning.’ 

But the researcher told the South China Morning Post the ‘greater transparency about China’s military capabilities and intentions could help reduce misunderstandings and miscalculations on both sides which could in turn help to reduce the risk of conflict.

‘Increasing transparency could also help build trust between China and other countries in the region which could contribute to greater stability over the long term.’

China released rare footage of its nuclear-capable, hypersonic missile DF-26 being launched during a military exercise. There are no images yet from the DF-27 test

Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere

DF-17 Dongfeng medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with a DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle, involved in an October 2019 military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Republic. The DF-27 is a new and improved version of the DF-17

The report comes just one day after Microsoft revealed that Chinese hackers targeted ‘critical’ US infrastructure.

The company said state-backed Chinese hackers, dubbed ‘Volt Typhoon,’ targeted Guam, sparking fears that Beijing is preparing to black out communications on the strategic US territory for an assault on Taiwan.

‘Volt Typhoon’ had been active since at least mid-2021 and are waging an ongoing breach of ‘critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the United States,’ Microsoft announced.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed that China was behind the breach across multiple government and private sector organizations.

 It also comes in the wake of a leaked Pentagon document that shows China successfully tested a new missile, named DF-27 – a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile, in the Dongfeng series.

The missile ‘possesses a high probability of penetrating US’ ballistic missile defenses, the report said. 

The February 28 memo also revealed that last year the Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army, deployed versions of the new missile that can attack land targets and ships. 

The new missile has a hypersonic glide vehicle, designed to fly more than five times the speed of sound. 

They can maneuver in flight, making them almost impossible to shoot down.

The DF-27 flew for 12 minutes and traveled 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles), the leaked document revealed. 

Its range is significantly more than that: a 2021 Defense Department report cited by The Washington Post said the DF-27 has a range of 5,000 to 8,000 kilometers, meaning that it can strike any target in East or Southeast Asia and large parts of the Pacific, including Guam. 

Alaska is around 7,200km away: mainland U.S. is under 11,000km away, according to the latest annual Pentagon analysis, ‘Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China’. The report was published in November and cited by Newsweek. 

‘The DF-27 is designed to enhance [China’s] ability to hold targets at risk beyond the Second Island Chain and possesses a high probability of penetrating U.S.’ ballistic missile defense, the report stated. 

The First, Second and Third Island Chains are geopolitical terms, first identified by U.S. military planners in the 1940s, for a series of concentric semicircles stretching out from China. 

The Second Island Chain references the area stretching from central Japan through the Marianas and Micronesia.

The third is centered on Hawaii. The first is closer to China, and runs from the far south of Japan through the South China Sea. 

 China in November 2021 tested for the first time a ‘Fractional Orbital Bombardment System’ – a warhead delivery system that can evade conventional ICBM defense systems

China’s expansion into hypersonic missile technology and other advanced fields has raised concerns as Beijing becomes increasingly assertive over its claims to seas and islands in the South China and East China Seas, and to large chunks of territory along its disputed high-mountain border with India. 

Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere, or about 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph). 

The United States and Russia are also developing hypersonic missiles, and North Korea said in August that it had test-fired a newly-developed hypersonic missile.

The Pentagon’s 2023 budget request already includes $4.7 billion (£4 billion) for research and development of hypersonic weapons. 

It includes planning that would have a hypersonic missile battery fielded by next year, a sea-based missile by 2025 and an air-based cruise missile by 2027. 

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