China Tests New DF-27 Hypersonic Missile Designed to Sink Western Carrier Groups Across the Ocean

Images of a new type of Chinese ballistic missile believed to be the DF-27 hypersonic platform have indicated that the new system may be making progress towards service entry, or may already be operational. The missile uses a large 12 wheel transporter erector launcher, and was shown covered in camouflage netting during redeployment. The missile is expected to have a range of between 5000 and 8000 kilometres, thus placing its reach between the DF-26 intermediate range ballistic missile with a 4500 kilometre range, and the country’s intercontinental range arsenal aimed at the United States mainland. Although the missile has the potential to strike American military bases across the Pacific, including on Guam and Hawaii, it is reportedly designed to be able to strike warships at sea, much like the intermediate range DF-26 and medium range DF-21D.

The DF-27 is one of three intermediate range ballistic missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles currently in development around the world, with the first to enter flight testing having been the North Korean Hwasong-16B in March 2024, followed by the Russian Oreshnik in November that year. China has continued to be considered the world leader in the field of hypersonic glide vehicle development, with the capabilities of its intercontinental range glide vehicles demonstrated during testing having caused particularly significant concerns in the Western world. Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten in November 2021 observed regarding one such test: “They launched a long-range missile. It went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided all the way back to China, that impacted a target in China.” He added that it struck accurately, calling the pace at which China’s military was developing new capabilities “stunning,” and warning that the country could gain the capability to launch a surprise nuclear attack on the United States.

China has long led the world in the development of anti-ship ballistic missiles, which are not widely fielded by other countries, and which have the potential to pose serious threats to Western Bloc warships across much of the Pacific. The range of this arsenal has expanded from the Western Pacific using the DF-21D, to as far as Guam in the mid-Pacific using the DF-26, with the DF-27 expand this far deeper across the ocean. One potential weakness of the DF-27 remains its reliance on satellite or drone targeting data to strike targets, with the destruction or disruption of friendly satellites making it potentially highly challenging to strike with sufficient precision to destroy enemy warships. China’s development of intercontinental range unmanned stealth aircraft, however, could provide an alternative means of obtaining targeting data, with the large sizes of these aircraft expected to allow them to deploy particularly large sensor packages if configured for reconnaissance.