Why China Developed the World’s Most Dangerous Cruise Missile: Striking Guam and the U.S. Mainland at Mach 4+ Speeds

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has provided new information on and a rare look at the secretive DF-100 cruise missile, as part of the services’ 98th anniversary celebrations. First unveiled in 2019, the DF-100 is widely considered the most capable land attack cruise missile class in the world, and pairs an estimated 3,000–4,000-kilometre range with a very high a Mach 4-5 cruising speed and high strike accuracy. The missile is one of a wide range of new Chinese assets capable of striking American military facilities across the Pacific, including critical facilities on Guam and Hawaii, with its speed posing a significant challenge to layered air defences. Although cruise missiles with similar ranges are fielded by a number of countries including Russia and United States, missiles combining such ranges with supersonic speed are very rare, while those achieving such ranges with a Mach 4-5 speed are unheard of outside China. This not only allows targets to be struck much more rapidly, but also make them far more difficult to intercept.

The DF-100 was shown operating during exercises simulating full spectrum jamming, with the footage highlighting its sharp conical warhead and oversized tail fins. This suggested manoeuvre authority, which further complications potential adversary interception efforts. The missiles were shown being launched from vehicles in cluttered urban terrain, demonstrating their ability to remain mobile to increase survivability. Alongside ground-based launch vehicle, the missiles can also be launched from H-6 bombers, which allows them to be launched from far over the Pacific to strike targets in Alaska and on the United States mainland. The H-6 is by far the most widely fielded bomber class in the world, with over 270 thought to be in service, providing options for large scale attacks using a wide range of cruise and ballistic missile types. The DF-100’s particularly long range heavily compensates for the bomber’s shorter range than rival classes such as the American B-2 and Russian Tu-160.

The DF-100’s capabilities are highly complimentary to those of China’s growing arsenals of drones, warships, and ballistic missiles capable of delivering very large scale attacks against targets on Guam and Hawaii, which have the potential to seriously disrupt the U.S. Armed Forces’ ability to operate in the Pacific. A year after the missile class was first unveiled, the China Aerospace Studies Institute published a report in November 2020 observing that it enabled simultaneous time-on-target salvos alongside DF-21 or DF-26 intermediate range ballistic missiles, forcing American air defences to counter attacks in multiple planes simultaneously. It has been speculated that Chinese destroyers and attacks submarines could field a missile class with similar capabilities to the DF-100 in future, and that a miniaturised variant could also be developed for fighter-sized aircraft operating from Chinese aircraft carriers, which would allow the People’s Liberation Army Navy to launch precision strikes against targets across much of the American mainland from the mid-Pacific.