China’s PLAN Exercises With YJ-62 Anti-Ship Missile
A regiment of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy)’s Northern Theater Navy (also known as "North Sea Fleet") has deployed land-based YJ-62 anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) in a drill that took place in the coastal city of Haiyang in Shandong province in China. The move is likely a first and has implications for the strategic Yellow Sea...
According to the drill’s one-minute-plus video footage released by Chinese state-owned broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), the brigade was seen exercising with four 8×8 WS2400 transporter-erector-launchers (TELs) – each equipped with three YJ-62 ASCMs – and a single 8×8 command post vehicle.
The PLAN’s North Sea Fleet (NSF) is subordinate to the Northern Theater Command headquartered in Shenyang City of Liaoning Province, which has jurisdiction over northern China and the Korean Peninsula.
The YJ-62 missiles have so far been deployed mainly in the Eastern Theater Command headquartered in Nanjing City of Jiangsu Province), which has jurisdiction over Taiwan, and the Southern Theater Command headquartered in Nanjing City of Guangdong Province), which has jurisdiction over the South China Sea.
It is likely that the missiles were deployed for the first time to units in the Northern Theater Command.
The YJ-62 is a turbojet-powered medium-range, anti-ship missile that can be launched from air, land or sea. According to GlobalSecurity.org, it has a maximum range of 500 kilometers and can carry 450 kg of high-explosive armor-piercing warheads. The maximum speed is subsonic at 0.9 Mach.
Equipped with a warhead weighing up to 300 kilograms, a 5,000-ton warship can be seriously damaged or even sunk with only one effective hit, GlobalSecurity.org states.
The YJ-62 anti-ship missile is no longer the only heavy anti-ship missile in China, because more advanced and longer range ASCMs such as the YJ-12 and YJ-18 have also entered service. The YJ-12 is also used by coastal defence forces similar to the YJ-62. In addition the PLA has various long range land attack cruise missiles at their disposal, both in ground- and air-launched varieties.
The Northern Theater Command is one of the five theater commands of the People’s Liberation Army, covering the three northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang, as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shandong Province. The PLA is strengthening its military capabilities in an operational area that includes China’s northeastern coast and the Yellow Sea (Korean name: West Sea) in preparation for an eventual military conflict with the Korean Peninsula, Russia, or Japan.
The Haiyang-based YJ-62 will put the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula littorals within the missile range. The Yellow Sea (known in Korea as the “West Sea”) is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula and is a “strategic corridor” for China because it connects to the Bohai Bay,
The Yellow Sea is extremely important geographically and historically for China and the Korean Peninsula, and is a strategic maritime point for military, trade, and diplomacy. Additionally, since Beijing is closest to the Korean Peninsula, peace and stability in the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula are essential for China’s economic development. However, since the beginning of this year, North Korea has repeatedly fired artillery and cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea, and so China may be increasing its vigilance toward North Korea.