YJ-21

China's ship-and-air-launched anti-ship hypersonic ballistic missile — a "carrier killer" with a maneuvering glide vehicle fired from Type 055 destroyers and H-6N bombers. It is built to hold US aircraft carriers and allied fleets at risk deep into the Pacific, and sits at the core of China's anti-access/area-denial picture.

Overview

The YJ-21 is a Chinese hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) — a maneuvering, boost-glide weapon designed to strike high-value warships such as aircraft carriers at long range. It is associated with two launch modes: vertical launch from the Type 055 Renhai destroyer's cells, and an air-launched variant carried by the H-6N bomber, widely designated the KD-21. By extending the "carrier killer" mission from China's land-based ballistic missiles to its surface fleet and bombers, the YJ-21 is a centerpiece of Beijing's anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy in the western Pacific. Its great advertised strength is that a maneuvering hypersonic re-entry vehicle is very hard for current naval missile defenses to intercept; its great unproven element is the over-the-horizon kill chain needed to find and hit a moving carrier at well over 1,000 km.

Development

China's anti-ship ballistic missile lineage runs from the land-based DF-21D and DF-26 "carrier killer" and "Guam killer" weapons; the YJ-21 brought a maneuvering hypersonic ASBM to ships and aircraft. The air-launched KD-21 carried by the H-6N was first seen in 2018, and a Type 055 launch of a hypersonic ASBM followed in the early 2020s. The picture sharpened in late 2025: at China's Victory Day parade in September 2025 Beijing displayed a hypersonic anti-ship missile, and on 28 December 2025 the Type 055 destroyer Wuxi (104) conducted what Chinese state media called a "finalization" (type-approval) test, striking a maritime target, as reported by USNI News. (See the naming note below: the late-2025 ship-launched missile is widely labeled YJ-20, and open sources disagree on how YJ-20, YJ-21 and KD-21 relate.)

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