Their Aegis missile defence system, deployed to protect American carrier groups, is designed to track a missile's trajectory from launch.
Is this Chinese missile threat sufficient to diminish carrier capabilities?
These ships, crewed by more than 350, play a key role in a modern carrier group, providing missile attacks against targets on land, sea or even in the air.
During operations, Nimitz-class carriers sail at the centre of a carrier battle group of ships that includes guided missile cruisers, destroyers, frigates, logistics ships and submarines.
China has also purchased Russian-built SS-N-22 Sunburn and SS-N-27 Sizzler anti-ship cruise missiles, designed specifically for targeting U.S. carrier strike groups and defeating the Aegis anti-missile system.
Ironically, there are rumors of flagging Navy support in recent budget deliberations for a program that could effectively provide U.S. carrier battle groups with several means for mitigating these missile threats: the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (N-UCAS).
Nowhere is this more evident than in China's development of an anti-ship ballistic missile capability, specifically designed to target U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups that are the principle obstacle to China's expansion goals in the Western Pacific.
The Navy is developing N-UCAS as a stealthy, carrier-based unmanned aircraft that would allow Carrier Strike Groups to operate effectively from outside the envelope of enemy missile threats and could act as a prime hunter against missiles and their launchers before and after launch.
While those missiles were influenced by the old U.S. Pershing 2 radar guided ballistic missile, China's system is far more capable and effectively keeps U.S. carrier battle groups out of their range until the U.S. Navy can put enough truly effective anti-missile defenses to sea.
China also confirmed for the first time that it was developing an antiship ballistic missile that the Pentagon says may already be basically operational and eventually capable of hitting a moving aircraft carrier up to 1, 700 miles, or 2, 700 kilometers, from China's shores.
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