Chinese missiles best in the world?

One of China’s largest arms manufacturers, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC), unveiled its new export version of the CM-302 hypersonic missile at the Zhuhai air show, which is capable of hitting both ground and underwater targets. Some Chinese media have called the missile “the best in the world.” Is that true?

Russian military expert Vasily Kashin wrote in his commentary for "Sputnik": "China will certainly succeed in creating a hypersonic anti-ship missile. But the country's capabilities to create a completely "own" modernized version of such a weapon are very modest. The hypersonic cruise missile, produced by the CASC and CASIC corporations, is a copy, albeit with structural modifications, of two important Russian anti-ship cruise missiles.

The Chinese CX-1 missile, presented by CASC at the Zhuhai Airshow in 2014, was based on the Russian Yakhont anti-ship missile, which is well known in the international arms market, and the BrahMos missile, a Russian-Indian joint venture product, is closely related to it. The CM-302 missile is an export version of the YJ-12, which is being displayed by rival CASIC at the current exhibition. The YJ-12 — essentially a scaled-up Russian X-31 anti-ship missile, is being produced in China under license from Russia. However, China does not have a supersonic anti-ship heavyweight missile similar to the Russian P-1000 Basalt and P-700 Granit.

These missiles are intended to counter aircraft carriers. They have a range of more than 700 km, a speed of up to 2.5 Mach (2.5 speed of sound). Having fired a salvo, they exchange information with each other during flight and coordinate simultaneous attacks on targets from different directions. The latest versions of "Granite" and "Basalt" can also fire at land targets. However, it should be noted: China's progress in missile manufacturing affects the military-political situation in the Pacific, causing concern for the Americans. Because the most popular American anti-aircraft missile Standard SM-2, due to its limited range, cannot counter the Chinese YJ-12 missile. Modernizing the US long-range missile defense system with Standard SM-6 missiles with a longer range will require huge costs, because the price of one such missile is $ 4 million. It should be recalled that in the near future Russia hopes to receive more modern means of combating warships. There have been tests of the hypersonic missile "Zircon", which can reach five times the speed of sound.

According to Sputnik