Why the X-47B is so important for the Navy

IBD:

As Korea festers, our friends in Beijing have deployed near Taiwan a powerful missile designed to take out U.S. aircraft carriers as Beijing strengthens its ability to prevent U.S. forces from aiding Taiwan.

When North Korea announced the 1953 Armistice was considered null and void and threatened renewed missile tests, the U.S. rushed naval assets to the region, including two destroyers equipped with the Aegis anti-missile defense system. We presumably would do so if things heated up between Beijing and its claimed "lost province," Taiwan.

That option became increasingly problematical when news of China's deployment of an anti-ship ballistic missile near Taiwan came in written testimony by the Pentagon's head of intelligence, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, delivered to a Senate committee on Thursday.

The missile, designated the DF-21D, is one of a "growing number of conventionally armed" new weapons China is deploying to the region, adding to more than 1,200 short-range missiles opposite the island democracy, Flynn, the Defense Intelligence Agency director, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Dong Feng-21D is intended to give China "the capability to attack large ships, particularly aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific," the Pentagon's 2012 China report said. The report cites estimates that the missile's range exceeds 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).

The land-based missile is designed to target and track aircraft carrier groups with the help of satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and over-the-horizon radar. Launched into space, the DF21D re-enters the atmosphere, maneuvering at 10 times the speed of sound towards its target.

Critics argue that this move only shows the vulnerability and obsolescence of the aircraft carrier in the missile era while others say our missile defense capabilities can handle the new threat. Certainly these floating air bases are no more vulnerable than fixed bases that cannot be moved to where they might be needed.

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The X-47B is a high performance attack jet that is also a drone.  This means it can fly an extended range after takeoff.  It would allow the attack drones to take off out of the range of the anti ship missiles.   BTW, I think the Aegis missile defense system is capable of knocking the anti ship missile out of the air.  With new laser missile defense system we may soon have a much cheaper way of dealing with the Chinese attack missiles.