Anti - ship ballistic missile An anti - ship ballistic missile ( ASBM ) is a military quasiballistic missile system designed to hit a warship at sea . The ASBM ' s conventional warhead and kinetic energy may be sufficient to cripple or outright destroy a supercarrier with a single hit . However , unlike a nuclear warhead , this will require a direct hit to be effective . Thus , and unlike a typical ballistic missile , which follows a ballistic flightpath after the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight , an ASBM would require a precise and high - performance terminal guidance system , with in - flight updates or advanced sensors in order to hit its moving target . China . China has designed the world ' s first anti - ship ballistic missile , known as the DF - 21D . In 2010 , it was reported that China had entered the DF - 21D into its early operational stage for deployment . The potential threat from the DF - 21D against US aircraft carrier s has reportedly caused major changes in US strategy . Iran . In February 2011 , Iran demonstrated a short - range anti - ship ballistic missile named Persian Gulf or " Khalij Fars " , a missile based on the Fateh - 110 which successfully hit a stationary target vessel . It has been reported as a short ranged ballistic missile with a range of 250 – 300 km . Countermeasures . The United States Navy allegedly fields what some experts think to be the best midcourse anti - ballistic defense in the world , and is developing high powered lasers for terminal - defense against anti - ship ballistic missiles . The U . S . arsenal has a variety of potential countermeasures . According to a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation , Roger Cliff , “ The thing to keep in mind is that , in order for China to successfully attack a U . S . navy ship with a ballistic missile , it must first detect the ship , identify it as a U . S . warship of a type that it wishes to attack ( e . g . , an aircraft carrier ) , acquire a precise enough measurement of its location that a missile can be launched at it ( i . e . , a one - hour old satellite photograph is probably useless , as the ship could be 25 miles away from where it was when the picture was taken ) , and then provide mid - course updates to the missile . Finally , the warhead must lock onto and home in on the ship . This complicated “ kill chain ” provides a number of opportunities to defeat the attack . For example , over - the - horizon radars used to detect ships can be jammed , spoofed , or destroyed ; smoke and other obscurants can be deployed when an imagery satellite , which follows a predictable orbit , is passing over a formation of ships ; the mid - course updates can be jammed ; and when the missile locks on to the target its seeker can be jammed or spoofed . Actually intercepting the missile is probably the most difficult thing to do . [ . . . ] The missile by itself would be pretty useless . As implied by my response to the previous question , an entire “ system of systems ” is needed to make it work . Some countries might buy them just to impress their neighbors , but their combat effectiveness would be negligible unless the country also invested in the needed detection , data processing , and communications systems . ”