Article

2010-07-09 China-Japan-Koreas

U.S. Tomahawk Missiles Deployed Near China Send Message

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Posted by lotp 2010-07-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 462 Tomahawks equals 462, 1000-lb bombs. To put it bluntly, that ain't diddly. And the Chinese are more than able to detect a sea launch via satellite, which would mean one fewer submarine in a hurry.

"The launch of the country's fourth Beidou orbiter late on Wednesday (Jun 8, 2010) night signals "a step closer" toward the highly anticipated Chinese-version of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a senior official said on Thursday."

Posted by Anonymoose 2010-07-09 00:26|| 2010-07-09 00:26|| Front Page Top

#2 'And the Chinese are more than able to detect a sea launch via satellite, which would mean one fewer submarine in a hurry.'

how so?

explain

Posted by Mike Hunt 2010-07-09 01:22|| 2010-07-09 01:22|| Front Page Top

#3 WAFF > CHINA WARNS AGZ US, SOUTH KOREA WAR GAMES.

* SAME > LOADING "PROMPT GLOBAL STRIKE" IN VLS CELLS WILL TRANSFORM US NAVAL POWER [USN changing frm "defensive" force into "offensive" force"]

versus

* GUAM PDN FORUMS > INSIDE THE RING [WashTimes] > OBAMA ORDERS DOD NOT TO INTERCEPT RUSSIAN STRIKE BOMBERS IN US AIRSPACE | RUSSIAN BOMBER INCURSIONS.

ARTIC = NORAD Interceptors do not automatically intercept or respond to RUSS AF STRATEGIC BOMBERS flying close or just inside US airspace.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2010-07-09 02:19|| 2010-07-09 02:19|| Front Page Top

#4 TOPIX > VARIOUS > CHINA STALLS UN EFFORTS TO CONDEMN NORTH KOREA. "Cheonan" affair,

Posted by JosephMendiola 2010-07-09 02:20|| 2010-07-09 02:20|| Front Page Top

#5 U.S. Tomahawk Missiles Deployed Near China Send Message

You bet it does: If the US has four subs, we should have eight. We can build them using the manufacturing base that the shortsighted American capitalist clowns so gleefully handed us when we devalued our currency.

Posted by gorb 2010-07-09 02:55|| 2010-07-09 02:55|| Front Page Top

#6 Is the message aimed at China? Or is it aimed at North Korea ... or possibly Iran.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-07-09 04:16|| 2010-07-09 04:16|| Front Page Top

#7 Mr. Anonymoose, I'm in full agreement with your weapons load out critique. The part of your comment that interests me even more is your bit about one less sub, should one of the SSGNs ever launch. How might this happen? Has the PLAN new ASW capabilities unknown? The posited ability of the PLAN to prosecute blue water ASW is a worrisome matter. if your position allows, please share out a fleshy detail. Thank you in advance.

Posted by Black Bart Shick7973 2010-07-09 05:34|| 2010-07-09 05:34|| Front Page Top

#8 Whether the Tomahawks are sufficient throw weight depends on what you want to use them for.

If there is a power in the area that has the habit of making incremental threats that leave allies feeling insecure, then the ability to make tactical, non-WMD responses might be valuable deterrence:

cripple a key port
deter occupation of an island here and there

etc.

Posted by lotp 2010-07-09 09:43|| 2010-07-09 09:43|| Front Page Top

#9 I was under the impression that Tomahawks were nuke-capable. That, at least, was an argument against them by the anti crowd, that a conventional Tomahawk would be indistinguishable from a nuke Tomahawk, thereby bringing about TEOTWAWKI and so on.

Posted by Grunter in Sydney 2010-07-09 10:06|| 2010-07-09 10:06|| Front Page Top

#10 462 Tomahawks equals 462, 1000-lb bombs. To put it bluntly, that ain't diddly.

Perfesser, it's not the payload size that matters. It's the target. And there are a lot of targets. Plus, there's more than one flavor of Tomahawk.

And the Chinese are more than able to detect a sea launch via satellite, which would mean one fewer submarine in a hurry.

One, there's a time lag.

Two, the Chinese would have to know the likely launch area and be monitoring it. As far as I know, they don't have a SOSUS line at the choke points.

Three, the Chinese would have to have ASW assets in-area or nearby and ready to move. It also means they have to keep assets out at sea longer, with all that entails. The PLAN is working on it, but they don't have the long-term blue-sea ops down just yet.

Four, a sub moves underwater. Having done ASW, it ain't easy, even with a noisy Russian sub. The Ohios are a fairly quiet sub. And I'm not sure if the PLAN has significant ASW experience, particularly deep-water (the USN has lost a lot of theirs, but that's another story).

Five, you don't have to use a weapon for it to have an effect.

Posted by Pappy 2010-07-09 10:18|| 2010-07-09 10:18|| Front Page Top

#11 Sure the Chinese noticed, but I'll bet the North Koreans noticed more. 462 properly targeted Tomahawks would probably decimate their infrastructure.

Posted by tu3031 2010-07-09 10:32|| 2010-07-09 10:32|| Front Page Top

#12 I'm thinking 'moose means it would be pretty easy to kill a sub with a tactical nuke missile, once you know where it is.

Posted by Scooter McGruder 2010-07-09 10:33|| 2010-07-09 10:33|| Front Page Top

#13 Im sure the Chinese enjoy the challenge of ratcheting up things a little .. Nothing like live training to keep you on the game .

Posted by Oscar 2010-07-09 10:42|| 2010-07-09 10:42|| Front Page Top

#14 Perhaps Mr. McGruder, but then, most things are.
However, a long-range, nuclear armed, ASW weapon is a rare creature. The Soviets may or may not have kept a few around, but the PLA does not have the luxury of excess strategic launchers, which, it is assumed the Soviets had (theoretically) tasked for this mission.

Posted by Black Bart Shick7973 2010-07-09 11:41|| 2010-07-09 11:41|| Front Page Top

#15 I'm thinking 'moose means it would be pretty easy to kill a sub with a tactical nuke missile, once you know where it is.

Sure, if you have a tactical nuke ASW weapon, if you have an ASW platform so equipped with said weapon within range, and if you know where the sub is. Then you gotta worry about the other three* subs.

* Only three appeared, remember?

Posted by Pappy 2010-07-09 12:02|| 2010-07-09 12:02|| Front Page Top

#16 Since when is Diego Garcia in the Pacific, or anywhere near China for that matter? I mean, by ballistic missile standards, yes, it is strategically close - but the whole article is about how the Tridents carry cruise missiles these days. Unless it's about being a threat to the "String of Pearls", and really, if any of our assets anywhere near one of China's painted whores is now an implied threat against China itself, just wrap it all up & go home.

Why the hell would we have *any* boomers in the Atlantic these days? Russia can be deterred from the Pacific quite nicely, in so far as we bother to deter them at all anymore.

Posted by Mitch H. 2010-07-09 12:52|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/ 2010-07-09 12:52|| Front Page Top

#17 The move forms part of a policy by the U.S. government to shift firepower from the Atlantic to the Pacific theater, which Washington sees as the military focus of the 21st century

What took so long? More like this, please. Now shift NATO eastward: swap out Turkey for Russia.

Play the Russia card against China.

Posted by lex 2010-07-09 13:00|| 2010-07-09 13:00|| Front Page Top

#18 That many Tomahawks will saturate the Chinese air defenses, and allow major targets to be killed. One that springs to mind is the Three Gorges Dam, that is already developing problems from bad construction practices.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2010-07-09 17:40|| 2010-07-09 17:40|| Front Page Top

#19 Hey lex, from a couple of articles I've read in http://www.strategypage.com/ the Russians are already a little edgey about the Chinese.

Posted by miscellaneous 2010-07-09 17:43|| 2010-07-09 17:43|| Front Page Top

#20 hey now!

/Flyash Liberation Army

Posted by Frank G 2010-07-09 18:42|| 2010-07-09 18:42|| Front Page Top

#21 the Russians are already a little edgey about the Chinese

Chinese traders and businessmen are very rapidly taking over the Russian Far East. In many Russian towns, the Chinese ~~invaders~~ traders outnumber native Russians by 10:1 or more. Think not Mexicans invading the SW United States but v-v. China's the dynamic and growign power here. Russia outside of Moscow and St. p is a complete shambles.

Posted by lex 2010-07-09 19:30|| 2010-07-09 19:30|| Front Page Top

#22 Russia outside of Moscow and St. p is a complete shambles.

What, all of it, lex? That seems an awful lot of territory to shamble through, although I haven't been paying attention. As far as I know, Mr. Wife hasn't been to that part of the world since about '96.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-07-09 21:51|| 2010-07-09 21:51|| Front Page Top

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