China today announced that it has successfully test-fired a new 14,000 km range inter-continental ballistic missile which can carry multiple warheads, providing it with a "first strike capability" to attack targets deep inside the US and round the world.
The Dongfeng-41 with strike distance of 14,000 km was test-fired by People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Second Artillery Corp last month, state-run CCTV reported, showing a rare lengthy footage of is mobile missile units.
"The new missile's mobility, precession and war head yield combined give China a first strike capability," the report said.
As many as 10 nuclear warheads can be put on the missile. China claims that it will not be the first one to use nuclear weapons and says its nuclear forces are designed for counter attack against nuclear attack on its territory.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
China tests mobile-8400-mile 10RV capable ICBM
While others are blathering about a U.S. political convention, we have this:
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3 comments:
Well, that was just a question of time ...
If the 10-MIRV statement is correct they also have made good progress on miniaturization.
In any case: Here goes further reduction. Now there are 3 major powers with strategic thermonuclear capability, changing the whole game. In addition all the strategic arms limitation talks now have to become trilateral.
These missiles were already shown at a military parade 2 years ago. We need to stop retiring our ICBMs and need to start production of new ICBMs and nuclear warheads if we want to have a credible nuclear deterrence. And yes, this will be very expensive. Start 2 was negotiated with the wrong nation. China will be able to produce hundreds or even thousands of these missiles and we suddenly may have 10000+ warheads pointed at us and could be wiped out in a first strike. This should be front page news, but is suppressed by our press and political leaders.
The problem with US's Strategic arsenal I think, is that it pretty much seems to be a fixed 'first-strike-or-lose-it' deterrence, by default.
That is pretty scary actually when one thinks about it.
The strategic ALCM portion of it is relegated to one single Bomber base - one which could be kept in check and neutralized by various means leading up to an imminent major conflict.
The Boomer portion of it is too small too. Too few boats out on active deterrence deployment at all times. Can write-off at least 50% of actively deployed boats under-way leading up to a major conflict and one likely can't rely on emergency-readied boats which could be potentially surged to open sea leading up to any imminent major conflict.
That leaves USAF's ICBM force, cough. Fixed sites... the remaining few of them. Either use them first or lose them.
Arguably then, it's probably better to have more survivable strategic deterrence assets as part of the mix in order to relieve pressure on an imbalanced first-strike-only capability and better enable a more survivable retaliatory strike capability.
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