Chinese hypersonic missiles 'could destroy US' latest aircraft carrier'

Soldiers protect the USS Gerald R. Ford bound for Norway on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

China's hypersonic weapons could destroy Chinese scientists say the latest US Navy aircraft carrier participated in a recent military exercise.

Computer simulations by a research team on a war games software platform used by the Chinese military , revealed that Chinese forces sank the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Fleet with a salvo of 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles, according to the South China Morning Post.

It says the results of the hypersonic strikes were first made public in the article , published in May by the Chinese-language journal Test and Management Technology.

Military planners often used computer warfare. scenarios for rehearsing strategies, but experts warn that they should not be overly relied upon in real-life conflicts where terrain, weather and other unforeseen factors can disable weapons.

The scenario was based on an attack on American ships that were heading for a Chinese-claimed island in the disputed South China Sea. Researchers say that some of the missiles in the three-wave attack were fired even from the Gobi Desert.

How a hypersonic missile works

Diplomatic confrontations have escalated in recent years over a resource-rich waterway due to overlapping territorial claims between Beijing and other countries in the region.

As China expands its influence by claiming islands, reefs and cliffs and militarizing them, the US Navy has reinforced its own freedom of navigation patrols.

Along with building up its naval capabilities, China is also rapidly developing its missile arsenal, including hypersonic technology.

According to a leaked top-secret report by the U.S. Intelligence Agency's Joint Chiefs of Staff in February, the Chinese military successfully tested a new a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile called the DF-27.

The document says the DF-27 has a high hit rate to bypass US missile defenses and was designed to boost Beijing's ability to strike large parts of the Pacific ocean, including the US territory of Guam, where the strategic military base is located.

It also showed that last year China deployed versions of a new missile capable of attacking land targets and ships, and that the DF-27 has great potential in as a «carrier killer» than its predecessors.

In the latest war game, researchers from the North, China University concluded that almost all US surface ships were destroyed by hypersonic attack and eventually sank.