Fast Take: Norinco's Fire Dragon 480 Missile

Overview:

China recently claimed that it could sink a United States Ticonderoga Class cruiser with its export ballistic missile, the Fire Dragon 480, in simulation.

Article:

Quoting text from an article in Interesting Engineering:

The Chinese PLA ran a computer simulation to check the Fire Dragon 480 missile’s potential. The team found that a group of missiles, coupled with a drone swarm, could eliminate a large US warship.

For the war game simulation, the researchers sourced satellite images to gain a rough idea of the warship’s location. Once the missiles reached the approximate target location, the on board sensors turned on and perfected the trajectory.

The researchers fired 12 Fire Dragon 480 missiles at two Ticonderoga-class cruisers of the US Navy in the simulation. The warship’s air defense system also launched several missiles in response and the Phalanx close-in weapon system was also activated.

Among the various missiles fired by the US Navy’s air defense, the long-range Standard 6 achieved a 71 percent hit rate, while the short-range Sea Sparrow had a 44% hit rate.

However, the results showed that one of the warships had been damaged badly and it sunk.

Analysis:

A key thing that the tests seems to have neglected is that there is another major missile that is available to Ticonderoga Class Cruisers.

The Standard Missile 3:

Image of a Standard Missile 3 being launched

Image of the types of SM-3 missile:

Blocks of SM-3 Missiles, from least, to most capable (Defense Talk)

In the last image you can see that the Standard Missile 3 is specifically designed to address attacks by ballistic missiles - specifically like the Firedragon 480 being developed by Norinco. The SM-3 participated in intercepting incoming ballistic missiles in the attack launched by Iran against Israel, an attack that was 99% defeated.

While the ships used in defense of Israel during the Attack were Arleigh Burke class destroyers, all of these variants of the SM-3 missile are available to Ticonderoga class cruisers.

Conclusion:

It’s a gross oversight that a test the PLA used to verify its ballistic missile’s capabilities forgot to include an entire class of battle-proven missile interceptor that specifically targets their advertised missile.

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References:

China sinks US warship with ballistic missiles in simulations: PLA (interestingengineering.com)

What is China's Fire Dragon missile, which PLA thinks can sink US warships? | External Affairs Defence Security News - Business Standard (business-standard.com)

PLA study suggests China’s Fire Dragon missiles could sink US warships | South China Morning Post (scmp.com)

Satellite Shoot Down: How It Will Work | Space

Next-Gen Standard Missile-3 Completes First Intercept Test | DefenceTalk

Signs Point To Combat Debut Of Navy's SM-3 Interceptor Against Iranian Ballistic Missiles (twz.com)