Pentagon chief: China can sink all aircraft carriers in minutes

China’s 15 hypersonic missiles can take out the US’s 10 aircraft carriers within minutes, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said last year. His concerns have resurfaced to the point where the US Congress recently expressed the need not to be left behind.

“In the last 15 years, the Pentagon has had a perfect record of losing against China in all its war game simulations,” Hegseth said in a chilling interview in November 2024 that has resurfaced on Thursday. 

In the chilling interview, Hegseth claimed China has been building its military capabilities for the sole purpose of defeating the United States. He suggested that the Asian country has enough hypersonic missiles to wipe out all of the US’s aircraft carriers in 20 minutes, which is alarming considering they are a primary line of defence.

“So, if our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers, and the ability to project power that way strategically around the globe … And if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our 10 aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of a conflict, what does that look like?” he said.

Hegseth got Congress to react

On April 10th, a US Congress report ascertained that the United States has actively pursued the development of hypersonic weapons, and in “recent years, it has focused more on developing hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles.

The report acknowledges that the US is lagging in hypersonic defence systems, but notes that there is now increasing interest from the Pentagon and Congress to pursue the development of these types of weapons.

“This is due, in part, to the advances in these technologies in Russia and China, both of which have several hypersonic weapons programmes and have likely fielded operational hypersonic glide vehicles, potentially armed with nuclear warheads, the congressional report noted.

Shocking revelations

A Washington Post article, headlined “The most shocking intel leak reveals new Chinese military advances,” confirms that China has successfully tested the DF-27, which travelled 1,300 miles in 12 minutes (7,500mph) and can evade defensive air systems.

According to a 2021 Defence Department report, the US government has already acknowledged that the DF-27 has a range of up to 5,000 miles (8,000 km), meaning it could strike any target in East or Southeast Asia, as well as large parts of the Pacific, including Guam, the Post said. 

“In addition to its added range, the new missile has a ‘hypersonic glide’ capability, which means it can be maneuvered to evade American and allied missile defences and is a greater potential’ carrier killer’ than its predecessors were,” it added.

The DF-27 uses an aerodynamic warhead that can maneuver to evade defences or more easily hit a moving target, said Tim Wright of the missile defence initiative team at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Ensuring their threat is credible

And in 2023, China launched a newer missile that circumnavigates the globe at Mach 10, traveling at approximately 7,700 mph (approximately 12,400 km/h) and cruising at an altitude of roughly 60,000 feet. China also has the successfully tested Starry Sky-2, a nuclear-capable missile, according to the Georgetown University Journal of International Affairs.

Also, “there has been some speculation that China could deploy a hypersonic glide vehicle with a nuclear payload on its newest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the DF-41,” the Journal said. It added that China is ensuring their capability to defeat US defense systems is credible in case of a regional armed conflict.

In October of last year, Reuters quoted two senior defence officials saying that, “fearing China will deploy hypersonic weapons to sink ships in the Pacific, the U.S. Navy is moving forward with a plan to arm some of its vessels with Patriot interceptor missiles.”

China has already developed a vast stockpile of anti-ship ballistic missiles, including the more advanced DF-21D “carrier killer,” as well as anti-ship warheads for its DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), the news agency added.

Warmongers have long discussed the potential for a US-China armed conflict, but with Hegseth as chief of the Pentagon and having said he is certain the Asian country is preparing to defeat his nation’s armed forces, and EU countries beefing up defence spending, it might be time to take the possibility more seriously.