CJ-10

China's principal subsonic land-attack cruise missile — deployed across ground, air, and naval platforms, with a growing range envelope and a reported nuclear option — widely seen as Beijing's answer to the Tomahawk and Kalibr.

Overview

The CJ-10 (Changjian-10) is the People’s Liberation Army’s primary long-range, subsonic land-attack cruise missile. It belongs to a family that spans ground-launched (DF-10/DF-10A), air-launched (KD-20/CJ-20), and naval (YJ-100) variants, all derived from a common airframe. The U.S. Department of Defense associates the missile with the Hong Niao lineage, tracing its propulsion and design technology to Soviet-era Kh-55 cruise missiles acquired by China in the 1990s. Army Recognition catalogues the weapon as a terrain-hugging, turbofan-powered cruise missile with a high subsonic speed and a range conventionally placed between 1,500 and 2,200 km, depending on variant. It is a cornerstone of China’s conventional precision-strike capability, and some open-source assessments report that the missile is nuclear-capable — a claim that remains officially unacknowledged by Beijing.

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