PLA 'sinks' US carrier in DF-21D wargame

2013-01-24 (Beijing Time)  SINA English

Internet photo shows the satellite image that China has "sunk" the battleship

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has successfully sunk a US aircraft carrier, according to a satellite photo provided by Google Earth--though the strike was merely a war game, the carrier a mock-up platformand the "sinking" occurred on dry land in a remote part of western China.
Satellite images revealed two large craters on a 200-meter-long white platform in the Gobi desert used to simulate the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. The photo was first posted on SAORBATS, an internet forum based in Argentina. Military analysts believed the craters would have been created by China's DF-21D anti-ship missile, dubbed the "carrier killer."
While claiming that the missile has the capability to hit aircraft carriers 2,000 kilometers away, the Global Times stated that the weapon was only designed for self-defense; the DF-21D will never pose a serious threat to US national security because it is not even able to reach Hawaii, the newspaper said, though fully aware of the US naval deployment in the Western Pacific.
Underlining this point, Global Times took a common line from China's national defense doctrine before the country acquired an aircraft carrier of its own — namely that carriers are an offensive weapon while anti-ship missiles are defensive. "It can be used like a stick to hit the dog intruding on our backyard, but it can never be used to attack the house where the dog comes from," the paper's commentary said.
J-16 to be deployed in S. China Sea, foreign media
According to Kanwa Defense Review report, China recently disclosed its J-16 fighter jets which would be equipped in air units of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
The fighter is believed to be the most powerful one among the aircraft in commission. However, the specific deployment of the jets is still unknown.
But the article predicted that “after PLA Navy air units complete their deployment in the East China Sea, they will focus on the South China Sea and the J-16 fighter jets is likely to be dispatched to the region.”
J-16 fighter jet has a combat radius of 1,500 kilometers, which means PLA navy could strike any vessels in areas of 1,500 kilometers from the coast. With its excellent naval strike capacity, the fighters will deter foreign naval vessels.
The jet is manufactured by the aircraft factory Shenyang Aircraft Co and it is a copy of Russian Su-30MK2.
It’s reported that China has 16 such fighters by now and will produce 8 more.