YJ-18. God help the sea base...its real, not vapor ware.

Scenario.

You have an assembly of US Navy amphibious ships hovering 100 miles off shore.  Marines are already in the process of landing to take out anti-ship missiles with the "vaunted Company Landing Team" concept.

They miss over half of them....some of the MV-22's never made it to shore having been taken out by anti-air complexes ashore but planners are still confident because the rest of the ASM's have been neutralized and what remains will be targeted by cruise missiles.

What they didn't know was that the biggest bad was on trucks, extremely mobile and was aimed at the task force offshore.

10 of the trucks launched at the same time and the YJ-18's streaked to the LHDs, LPDs, and MLPs at supersonic speed.  The three Burke class destroyers opened up as soon as launch was detected but a combination of high speed and the ability to maneuver at up to 10g's means that they were only successful at killing three of the 10 missiles incoming.  Close in Weapon Systems technically killed another 5....but it was a victory that no one celebrated.  The missiles were moving at over Mach 2 so the debris of the missiles continued on into the amphibs.

The amphibs were the combination of two Marine Expeditionary Units with two MLPs activated for the mission.  The Chinese were cunning.  They targeted the two LHDs and the LPDs.  They ignored the MLPs and LSDs entirely.

Two of the missiles that remained intact struck the USS America at the waterline.  1000 Marines died or were presumed dead.  The Marine Air Component lost all of its Harriers, most of its CH-53's, AH-1Zs, UH-1s and half of its MV-22s.  The USS Bonhomme Richard faced the same fate.  Who knew that a broken missile flying at supersonic speed could be so destructive?  The USS New York was trashed beyond recognition and the San Antonio was already limping to Hawaii.

The YJ-18.  A missile I thought was vaporware and Chinese fanboy fiction is real.  Via Defence Blog.

In China spotted new YJ-18 coastal defence missile system based on the chassis 8×8. The YingJi-18 (YJ-18 or Eagle/Hawk-18) is a vertically-launched, long-range, supersonic, anti-ship missile
The system is designed for the destruction of various surface ships from an enemy’s landing squadrons, convoys, carrier strike groups, as well as single vessels and land-based radiocontrast targets in conditions of intensive fire and electronic countermeasures.
After the vertical launch the missile’s turbojet engine is capable of flying at a cruise speed of Mach 0.8 for about 180 kilometers after that point the warhead section separates and a solid rocket engine ignites allowing at a top speed of Mach 2.5-3 for about 40 kilometers. The missile can maneuver at 10G acceleration to avoid enemy interception by air-to-air or surface-air missiles. The missile design and performance is very similar to Russia’s 3M54E which may have been the template for the YJ-18.

Someone wake me when this nightmare is over.

While we deal in triviality, our enemies are getting stronger.  At this rate, surrender before a shot is fired will be the only logical course of action.