YJ-19

The YJ-19 is a Chinese air-breathing hypersonic anti-ship missile designed for launch through standard submarine torpedo tubes.

Overview

The YJ-19, or Yingji-19 (“Eagle Strike-19”), is a submarine-launched anti-ship cruise missile associated with the People's Liberation Army Navy. China publicly displayed the weapon during its September 2025 military parade, where it appeared alongside the YJ-17 and YJ-20 as part of a broader family of ship- and submarine-launched hypersonic weapons, according to Naval News.

Its defining feature is compatibility with standard 533 mm submarine torpedo tubes. This permits carriage aboard Type 039B Yuan-class diesel-electric submarines without the vertical-launch system required by some comparable weapons. A February 2026 PLAN report carried by Chinese state media said the missile had been accepted for service aboard the Type 039B; Naval News assessed that this made China the only country then known to arm non-nuclear submarines with hypersonic strike weapons.

The missile is described as an air-breathing design that likely uses a scramjet after an initial booster phase. China labels it hypersonic, implying flight at Mach 5 or faster, although its exact speed, range, seeker, warhead, accuracy, production total and unit cost have not been publicly established.

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