Askume Singapore, Sept 17 – The United States is stockpiling large quantities of easy-to-manufacture anti-ship weapons as a deterrent .
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed American thinking toward a new philosophy — “cheap quantities,” as one missile industry CEO put it on condition of anonymity, referring to the relative cheapness of large quantities of weapons.
“This is a natural response to what China is doing,” said Euan Graham, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, referring to Chinese ships and conventional ballistic missiles.
The Pentagon and China’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The United States has stepped up testing of its “Quicksync” weapon, a cheap and potentially explosive bomb equipped with a low-cost GPS guidance package and a seeker that can track moving objects. In a test in the Gulf of Mexico last month, the US Air Force used a B-2 stealth bomber to attack a target ship with Quicksync.
Experts believe China will still have an overwhelming advantage in terms of the number of anti-ship missiles it has and can deploy on its home turf. But the increase in US production of “Rapid Sinkers” will close that gap, as China’s roughly 370 warships will face a greater risk in any future conflict than Beijing has faced since it further modernized its military in the 1990s.
QuickSync is still in development and is built by Boeing (BA.N) , which has a follower in BAE Systems (BAES.L) . QuickSync works with hundreds of thousands of Joint Direct Attack Munition Tail Kits, a system that can be dropped from U.S. or allied warplanes and “fool” a 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bomb into a guided missile inexpensively.
The U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command wants thousands of QuickSync weapons and has wanted one for years, according to an industry official who declined to give an exact number because it is classified.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said if enough “low-cost” weapons were fired at China, the Chinese ships’ defences would collapse.
In this case, the US military would use long-range anti-ship missiles (LRASM) or SM-6 missiles to damage the Chinese warships and their radars, and then bomb them with low-cost weapons such as fast sinking.
Different types of weapons
The United States is stockpiling a variety of anti-ship weapons in Asia. In April, the US military deployed a new “Typhon” mobile missile battery during an exercise in the Philippines. The battery was developed inexpensively using existing components and can launch SM-6 and “Tomahawk” missiles at sea targets.
Such weapons are relatively easy to produce — drawing on large stockpiles and designs that have existed for a decade or more — and could help the United States and its allies make rapid progress in the Indo-Pacific missile race, in which China remains in the lead.
Although the US military declined to say how many missiles it would deploy in the Indo-Pacific region, according to government documents outlining military purchases, more than 800 SM-6 missiles will be purchased over the next five years. The documents show that the United States already has thousands of Tomahawks and hundreds of thousands of JDAM missiles in its inventory.
“China’s strategy is to limit the movement of US naval assets in the western Pacific and the first island chain,” Graham said, referring to the major archipelago closest to the East Asian coast. “It’s a like-minded response that makes life difficult for the People’s Liberation Army.”
“PLAN” is the abbreviation for “People’s Liberation Army Navy” and is the maritime service department of China.
Deploying anti-ship weapons in places like the Philippines would give them access to much of the South China Sea. China claims 90% of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory, but five Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan dispute this.
“In a way, it’s leveling the playing field,” said Colin Coe, a scholar at the SSRS School of International Studies in Singapore.
Koh cited the example of Iran’s allies, the Houthis, using low-tech anti-ship weapons to target civilian traffic in the Red Sea, forcing the United States and other countries to deploy expensive weapons to defend against them.
“If you look at the Red Sea example, obviously the cost equation (for anti-ship missiles) is not in the defender’s favor,” Gao said. “Even if you have a small number of these offensive missile systems, you can still expect a level of deterrence.”
