NEW DELHI: China has test-fired a stealth anti-ship cruise missile featuring a black radar-absorbing coating designed to reduce its radar signature and improve its ability to evade enemy defences, according to a media report on Wednesday.
The missile, identified by military experts as a new variant of the YJ-18A, was launched from a Chinese navy warship’s vertical launch system during an “extreme-performance test” in an unspecified sea area, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
State broadcaster CCTV released footage of the test last Saturday, drawing attention to the missile’s distinctive black coating.
Military experts cited by the report identified the weapon as a variant of the YJ-18A, an anti-ship missile that cruises at subsonic speed before accelerating to supersonic speed during its terminal attack. The missile is reportedly deployed on China’s Type 052D and Type 055 destroyers.
Chinese military commentator and former People’s Liberation Army instructor Song Zhongping said the black coating had strong radar-wave-absorbing properties, reducing the radar energy reflected towards enemy detection systems and making the missile harder to detect.
The coating could also provide visual camouflage over deep water, Song said, noting that the colour of the sea can appear dark, particularly in deep waters.
“What matters most for an anti-ship missile is its ability to penetrate enemy defences,” Song said, adding that stealth and high speed were two key methods of achieving this.
He said the YJ-18A combined both capabilities, with the missile able to use stealth during its flight and accelerate to supersonic speed during the terminal phase.
The original YJ-18, derived from the Russian 3M-54E submarine-launched anti-ship missile system, has a reported range of about 540 km. According to a state-run China Daily report, it cruises at around 966 kmph before its warhead accelerates to Mach 3 while approaching a target.
China has increasingly focused on stealth technologies in recent years, including sixth-generation aircraft, stealth drones, naval aviation and systems designed to detect or counter enemy stealth platforms.