For months last year, the US weighed the possible outcomes of challenging China's land reclamation activities in the South China Sea, but now that it has, the US Navy's top commander in the Pacific says Washington would not back down.

The US Navy needs more advanced weapons like Lockheed-Martin's air-launched Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) in view of Washington's plans to increase US freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, Admiral Harry Harris told the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

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"We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that that water space and the air above it is international," Harris said, adding that the new LRASM is a "great capability we need to bring on line fast."

"Game-Changer"

Harris made the statement after satellite images surfaced earlier this week suggesting China is building a high-frequency radar system on a disputed area of the South China Sea. 

The images have led to speculations that the Chinese military is setting up an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) zone in the territory. 

The US military's new LRASM is designed to counter the A2/AD weapons and technologies of countries like China and Russia, and is a "game-changer," according to the Pentagon.  US defense secretary Ashton Carter highlighted the missile system when he unveiled the Pentagon's 2017 budget before the US Senate earlier this month. 

Experts say the new Lockheed missile is capable of sneaking through defensive zones undetected by radar, and is equipped with target-seeking technology that allows it to partly discern and destroy enemy vessels by itself.  

The US Navy plans to buy the first 24 LRASMs that will roll out of Lockheed-Martin's manufacturing plants next year, and then another 464 through 2021, according to Bloomberg.

"Strategic Capability"

Harris repeated Washington's earlier claims that Beijing is militarizing the South China Sea, and said the US should deploy more naval assets in the vicinity of the Asian waterway to deter China's increasing military presence there.

"I need weapons systems of increased lethality that go faster, go further, and are more survivable," Harris told legislators in the armed services committee, adding that the US Navy's sub-sonic ship weapon -- the Harpoon -- is "essentially the same missile we had in 1978, when I was a newly commissioned ensign." 

Harris claims China is building high-performance JIN-class attack submarines, and deploying anti-ship missiles that can be fired increasingly far from US vessels, making them more difficult to detect and defeat.

"When armed, a JIN-class SSBN will give China an important strategic capability that must be countered," Harris said.

Beijing and Washington traded accusations of militarizing the South China Sea last week in the wake of reports that China had deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island, part of the Paracel island group disputed by Beijing, Hanoi and Taipei.

China has defended its right to establish defensive positions in areas it claims are its sovereign territory, and has likened Chinese defensive positions in the South China Sea to US military installations and weapons in Hawaii. 

TagsUS-China relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Admiral Harry Harris