China tests YJ-18A stealth anti-ship cruise missile designed to evade radar: Report

China has reportedly test-fired a stealth anti-ship cruise missile featuring a black, radar-absorbing coating designed to reduce its detectability, according to a report on Wednesday. The missile has been identified as a new variant of the YJ-18A, with a black radar-absorbing finish that would improve penetration and visual camouflage over deep water, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted military experts as saying.

According to the report, the missile was launched from a Chinese naval vessel's vertical launch system (VLS) during a test conducted in an unspecified sea area. The test was described as an extreme-performance trial of a new type of anti-ship missile.

Footage was released by state broadcaster CCTV last Saturday highlighting the missile's black coating.

Experts identified the missile as a variant of YJ-18A, the anti-ship missile that cruises at subsonic speed before making a supersonic terminal attack, often equipped on the 7,500-tonne Type 052D and 12,000-tonne Type 055 destroyers, the report said.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military commentator and former People's Liberation Army instructor, said that the black coating was a type of stealth coating with strong radar-wave-absorbing properties, reducing the amount of radar energy reflected to enemy radar and making the missile harder to detect.

Song said the black coating also served another purpose. "Don't assume that the sea is always blue; in fact, the colour of the deep sea can be quite dark, even approaching black. So it provides both radar stealth and visual camouflage by matching the colour of the sea," he said.

"What matters most for an anti-ship missile is its ability to penetrate enemy defences," Song said, adding that there were two ways to do this: through stealth and through high-speed flight – and the YJ-18A combined both.

"In its terminal phase, it can penetrate defences at supersonic speed while also employing stealth. Maintaining stealth throughout its flight can further improve its ability to penetrate enemy defences, particularly when striking large surface vessels," Song said.

The original YJ-18, which was derived from Russia's 3M-54E submarine-launched anti-ship missile system, has an estimated range of around 540 km.

According to a state-run China Daily report, the missile has a cruising speed of approximately 966 km/h and can accelerate to around Mach 3 as it approaches its target.

In recent years, the Chinese military has increasingly focused on stealth technologies across its armed forces, including fighter jets and naval frigates.

is also developing sixth-generation stealth aircraft, stealth drones and advanced naval aviation platforms, alongside technologies designed to detect and counter enemy stealth aircraft.