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China's Navy Conducts Final Test of Ship-Launched Hypersonic Missile

The Wuxi launches a YJ-20 ASBM (China Military Bugle)
The Wuxi launches a YJ-20 ASBM (China Military Bugle)

By The Maritime Executive 2025-12-29 22:05:45

On Sunday, Chinese state media unveiled the final test launch of a new maneuvering hypersonic missile from a multirole destroyer. The operational test shows that the PLA Navy will soon field a weapon that is far harder for American missile defense systems to intercept, augmenting the PLA's formidable anti-ship ballistic missile portfolio.

The test of the new YJ-20 hypersonic missile was announced by official military media outlet China Military Bugle, and was accompanied by video footage of the launch from a Type 055 destroyer, the Wuxi. The video suggests that the YJ-20 is ejected from a VLS cell before ignition of its rocket motor ("cold launch").

Capabilities like the YJ-20 could allow China to stretch its presence further out into the Pacific or the Indian Ocean, allowing the Type 055 class to operate with a top-of-the-line, long-range antiship missile system - if it works in practice. Hypersonics still require offboard surveillance of the target in order to complete the "kill chain," and U.S. defense officials have said that China's network of remote-sensing and guidance capabilities would be targeted in the event of a conflict.

In addition to the YJ-20, the PLA operates multiple distinct classes of antiship ballistic missiles, several designated hypersonic. (In the defense context, "hypersonic" means that the device is both faster than Mach 5 and maneuverable on terminal approach.) The YJ-17 sub-launched medium-range ballistic missile has a hypersonic glide vehicle payload and an antiship capability, with enough range to reach Yokosuka and Subic Bay. The DF-26, an intermediate range ballistic missile, can reach out to 4,000 kilometers - enough to range Guam, where the U.S. maintains key military installations.

The newly-produced DF-27 - not yet announced by China, but acknowledged by the Pentagon - is an intercontinental antiship ballistic missile with enough range to threaten U.S. Navy ships across half the world. Launched from a truck within China's borders, it could theoretically reach the North Atlantic, Europe, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Pearl Harbor, or San Francisco Bay. 

Now, with the YJ-20, China can bring an advanced antiship ballistic missile threat to any theater where the Type 055 destroyer can reach. Eight of these 12,000-tonne warships are in service, and eight more are planned.