Gerry Doyle

Very interesting book about a type of weapon I never imagined that anybody would consider for anti-ship operations - ballistic missile as a weapon against the huge surface ships. It just feels rather unwieldy. In any case it is obvious that development of missile technology produces very interesting and advanced technology that I can only say I wish all this effort goes into the non military industry. But this would be totally naive and not following the way real world and political relations work.

To be honest this book is not about Chinese missiles. As a matter of fact everything said about DF-17, DF-21 and DF-26 could be placed on a single, maybe two pages.

Rest of the book is rather long dissertation on power and capabilities of modern aircraft carriers. Authors spend a lot of time describing modern aircraft carrier groups and technology at its disposal when it comes to waging war. And here we are given overview of very powerful systems that can be used for defense from ballistic missiles, together with descriptions of their limitations and flaws.

But between all the Sun Tzu quotes, sexy buzzwords like "assassins mace" and constant walk on the edge between looking at China with starry eyes and explaining ways to keep that same China in check it is clear that:
- West knows about China as much as it knows about Russia - literary nothing - which causes West to make stupid moves
- West is rather frustrated in recent years because it is slowly losing dominance, it gets questioned and West needs now to thread carefully because losses can be incurred, losses that only decade before were something unthinkable. I had to giggle while authors described all the US bases and infrastructure that are taken for granted as their own extended property on the opposite parts of the globe to execute military actions and strikes to whomever is their political antagonist at the moment. It shows that world post Cold War end was never at peace but under control from one side while others were in shambles. And now these other nations are enforcing their own pretensions and policies in their near vicinity and of course get into conflict with the world police and its allies - how dare they, right? Hah!

If any nation state wants to be independent it needs to have a strong army and needs to have a weapon to ensure its survivability or at least threaten great losses to opposing party. And for countries like China development of missiles is a force multiplier and they truly use it. It is visible from the information on ballistic missiles that they have dual, maybe triple application - for targets on sea and ground and nuclear or conventional strikes - and huge ranges. Although I cannot fathom how they plan to use it against the ship size of the carrier hundreds of miles away from the coast, nobody can say they did not made it work. And this is where deterrence works, because it forces the opponent to slow down and think while before they projected their power without limitations.

Interesting book, with great illustrations, maps and photographs. I just wish they had more information on the actual missiles.

Recommended to anyone interested in the China/US tensions in the Pacific.… (más)