What's new

China tests its latest smart submunitions technology aboard a DF-16B Ballistic Missile.

cirr

ELITE MEMBER
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
Messages
17,049
Reaction score
18
Country
China
Location
China
NEW CHINESE BALLISTIC MISSILE CRASHES THE BATTLEFIELD PARTY WITH CLUSTER MUNITIONS

TEST FIRING THE DF-16B MISSILE

By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer

Posted Yesterday at 8:00pm

df-16b_launch.jpeg

007 via Chinese Internet DF-16B The DF-16B launches during a Rocket Force exercise. With a one ton warhead, it has a range of around 1,000km and can hit moving targets the size of a sedan automobile.

New video footage shows a deadly Chinese missile maneuvering to destroy multiple targets.

df-16_tel.jpg

Blitzo via China Defense Forum On Parade On the 70th anniversary of the Victory over Japan Day parade in September 2015, the then Second Artillery paraded multiple DF-1^ TELs in Beijing.

Already having the world's largest and most advanced arsenal of short range ballistic missiles, China is constantly finding new ways to keep its missiles relevant for future battles. The DF-16 SRBM, which entered service in 2011-2012, has a range of 1,000km (twice that of the older DF-11 and DF-15), accuracy of 5-10 meters, and a warhead of up to one ton. Fired from a 10X10 transport erector launch vehicle, the DF-16B can hide hundreds of kilometers inland inside China's interior, but reach out to launch attacks against enemy ships and bases. By flying faster, higher and further than the DF-11 and DF-15, it also can slip through many missile defense systems. And it can take ona variety of payloads, including anti-ship warheads, multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs), bunker busting munitions and more.

df-16b_impact.jpeg

007 via Chinese Internet Many Booms The DF-16B SRBM can carry submunitions to blanket areas with smart munitions to precisely target enemy vehicles and missile launcher.

The latest DF-16 variant, the DF-16B, introduces a payload of lethal cluster munitions. Compared to cluster bombs dropped from slower planes and cruise missiles, a ballistic missile equipped with cluster munition will only take minutes to reach its target as far as 1,000km away. The lethal payload of munitions can include guided variants, so scores of smart minibombs can quickly dispatch targets like grounded fighters, tank columns and air defense missile launchers. Thus, in addition to its role in China's anti-access/area denial strategy of attacking enemy ships and bases, the DF-16B's submunitions can be used to defeat other nation's A2/AD networks (a new focus of states like Japan), by pulverizing enemy air defense and anti-ship missile batteries.

New Chinese Ballistic Missile Crashes the Battlefield Party With Cluster Munitions | Popular Science
 
I have often though of this idea..putting cluster munition on a missile and using it sort of like rain of hell...
 
I have often though of this idea..putting cluster munition on a missile and using it sort of like rain of hell...
Actually, that would not guarantee an efficient method of destruction.

What make cluster munitions effective is the OVERLAPPING fields of explosions the bomblets create over a target body or target area. In other words, instead of a 100 kilo bomb to destroy a truck, you can disable the same by using two bomblets whose combined explosive power is less than 100 kilo but because they impact the truck at two different points that are near to each other, you gain the same result. In combat, disabled is often as good as destroyed.

What this mean is that there is the problem of dispersal pattern. If you are attacking a runway, then overlapping fields of explosions are not as important. If you can create multiple craters, you do not want the bomblets to impact the ground near each other but that they should be far apart from each other at just the right distance to make it difficult for the enemy aircrafts to use the runway. On the other hand, if you are attacking a mobile target with cluster munitions, you want the bomblets to fall within proximity to each other. But then again, a tank is a mobile target and so is a body of soldiers and soldiers scatters while a tank remains a unitary body that can only turn this way and that way. How are you going disperse your cluster munitions ?
 
Taking effect on August 1, 2010, the "Convention on Cluster Munitions" bans the stockpiling, use and transfer of virtually all existing cluster bombs and provides for the clearing up of unexploded munitions. It had been signed by 108 countries, of which 38 had ratified it by the affected date, but many of the world's major military powers including the United States, Russia, Brazil and China are not signatories to the treaty.
 
How many ballistic missiles can China produce in a year ?Does China have weapons factories in deep secure undergrond facilities ?
 
But not as flexible as on a strike fighter or even on a cruise missile.
Let's see:

- Mobile launch platforms
- Larger warhead
- Reaches its targets quicker than jets and cruise missiles
- Can be modified on existing missiles

How many ballistic missiles can China produce in a year ?Does China have weapons factories in deep secure undergrond facilities ?
Back in 2010, Taiwan stated China aimed about 1000 ballistic missiles at the island, growing at about 200 a year. Of course, that info is 5 years out of date. Since then, China has developed a vast array of other strike methods.
 
Taking effect on August 1, 2010, the "Convention on Cluster Munitions" bans the stockpiling, use and transfer of virtually all existing cluster bombs and provides for the clearing up of unexploded munitions. It had been signed by 108 countries, of which 38 had ratified it by the affected date, but many of the world's major military powers including the United States, Russia, Brazil and China are not signatories to the treaty.
What about Vietnam? LOL
 
Let's see:

- Mobile launch platforms
- Larger warhead
- Reaches its targets quicker than jets and cruise missiles
- Can be modified on existing missiles
I am talking about flexibility at the combat scene. A ballistic missile follows a determined flight path from launch to target.

Of course, I am talking to someone who have never been in the cockpit of a fighter under a powered descent trying to figure out how to best take out a ground target. :rolleyes:
 
Why are you bring up the Convention on Cluster Munitions? What are your points?

1. that's an old weapon, used in wars long time ago. It leaves UXO
2. it was considered as inhumanity, that's why there's that Convention.

Don't promote usage of that
 
I am talking about flexibility at the combat scene. A ballistic missile follows a determined flight path from launch to target.

Of course, I am talking to someone who have never been in the cockpit of a fighter under a powered descent trying to figure out how to best take out a ground target. :rolleyes:
Except it's all about stand-off attacks these days to reduce risk to launch platform, and ballistic missile is about as stand-off as you can get. You're not flying out to the area of operation to look for targets of opportunity. The targets in the area are already predetermined before the strike.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom