At the moment China is constructing 145 new silos for ICBMs
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52051
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I think most of the studies are based on FAS's research work.
And FAS tend to always underestimate, instead of overestimate China's nuclear capabilites.
You can check FAS's website, there are several articles they published this year on China's ICBM silos, you can check their work, their conclusion is quite reasonable.
I dont believe their work can be dismissed by some random nobody who happen to know how to open google map.
Battlion25
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This is quite interesting. I will have to research that one up
Zsari
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It's part of the shell game strategy. They are meant to be detected and spaced out to maximize the nukes needed in destroying all of them. Very few of these silo will actually host ICBMs, and the missiles will be moved around in underground tunnel between the silo. It's basically to divert potential 1st strike to these empty silos in the middle of nowhere, as the opponent will have to consider all the silos armed and dangerous. As countries deploy hypersonic missiles, the reaction time is getting a lot shorter. China needs additional measures to ensure its 2nd strike capability. There will be more of these sites popping up all over the vast desert region.
j20blackdragon
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China will soon surpass Russia as a nuclear threat –senior U.S. military official
WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - China, in the midst of a rapid nuclear weapons buildup, will soon surpass Russia as the United States' top nuclear threat, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday, warning that the two countries have no mechanisms to avert miscommunication.
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas Bussiere, the deputy commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear arsenal, said China's development of nuclear capabilities "can no longer be aligned" with its public claim that it wants to maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent.
"There's going to be a point, a crossover point, where the number of threats presented by China will exceed the number of threats that currently Russia presents," Bussiere told an online forum.
"There will be a crossover point, we believe, in the next few years," Bussiere said.
www.reuters.com
WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - China, in the midst of a rapid nuclear weapons buildup, will soon surpass Russia as the United States' top nuclear threat, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday, warning that the two countries have no mechanisms to avert miscommunication.
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas Bussiere, the deputy commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear arsenal, said China's development of nuclear capabilities "can no longer be aligned" with its public claim that it wants to maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent.
"There's going to be a point, a crossover point, where the number of threats presented by China will exceed the number of threats that currently Russia presents," Bussiere told an online forum.
"There will be a crossover point, we believe, in the next few years," Bussiere said.
China will soon surpass Russia as a nuclear threat –senior U.S. military official
China, in the midst of a rapid nuclear weapons buildup, will soon surpass Russia as the United States' top nuclear threat, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday, warning that the two countries have no mechanisms to avert miscommunication.
Beidou2020
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China will soon surpass Russia as a nuclear threat –senior U.S. military official
WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - China, in the midst of a rapid nuclear weapons buildup, will soon surpass Russia as the United States' top nuclear threat, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday, warning that the two countries have no mechanisms to avert miscommunication.
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas Bussiere, the deputy commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear arsenal, said China's development of nuclear capabilities "can no longer be aligned" with its public claim that it wants to maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent.
"There's going to be a point, a crossover point, where the number of threats presented by China will exceed the number of threats that currently Russia presents," Bussiere told an online forum.
"There will be a crossover point, we believe, in the next few years," Bussiere said.
China will soon surpass Russia as a nuclear threat –senior U.S. military official
China, in the midst of a rapid nuclear weapons buildup, will soon surpass Russia as the United States' top nuclear threat, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday, warning that the two countries have no mechanisms to avert miscommunication.
Genocidal white supremacists are getting mad their long desired pipe dream of wiping out the Chinese civilisation is ending.
j20blackdragon
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China Sees Its Nuclear Arsenal as More Than a Deterrent
Beijing is adding warheads, missiles and subs at an alarming rate. The goal is global dominance.
By William Schneider Jr.
Sept. 7, 2021 6:09 pm ET
The military threat from Beijing is accelerating at a pace few anticipated. Recently released satellite imagery shows that China is rapidly constructing nearly 300 hardened underground silos in its western desert to house intercontinental ballistic missiles. Also unexpected was the revelation that China recently began work on a third site of similar size near Ordos City that was not previously associated with ICBMs.
This indicates that the Chinese have dramatically increased their operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads beyond even what was forecast by the Defense Department a year ago. The type of Chinese missile expected to be loaded into these particular silos is currently in serial production, so it won’t be long before these sites reach their full capability. According to Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, the scope and scale of these activities should be considered a “strategic breakout by China.”
Why was the West caught so off-guard? The U.S. and its allies have a persistent difficulty grasping the underlying aspirations of China’s economic, foreign and defense policy, resulting in dangerous misestimations of China’s security advances. The U.S. assumed China would always retain Mao’s “minimum deterrence” approach to nuclear weapons.
China aims to become the leading global economic and military power by midcentury. Although President Xi Jinping outlined this aspiration in 2011, it wasn’t formalized until the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017. The evidence affirms that China is seeking global military dominance, not “parity” with the West.
An early clue to China’s approach to defense modernization emerged as it built a Navy to meet global, not regional security needs. China’s naval shipbuilding infrastructure facilitated a rapid increase in naval vessels: By 2030 China’s naval forces will have an estimated 415 surface vessels and 99 manned and unmanned submarines, while the U.S. will have a maximum of 350 manned and unmanned surface ships and 66 submarines.
China has added an additional capability not found in Western navies: a capacity to control the sea from land. In August 2020, China launched an intermediate range missile from Western China and a medium range ballistic missile from Eastern China. This flexible, land-based capability could augment China’s naval forces almost anywhere in the world. The U.S.’s planned naval modernization efforts are far behind what will be needed to avoid being outflanked by China.
Western expectations for growth in China’s nuclear force were upended by obsolescent assumptions about the Chinese goal of minimum deterrence—a small number of missiles sufficient for deterrence in some circumstances, but little else. Since President Xi took office, China has increased the size and sophistication of its nuclear delivery systems. While China’s missiles were silo-based a decade ago, Beijing has developed a triad of land, sea and air-based nuclear capabilities. The Defense Department estimates the Chinese have 350 nuclear warheads, of which roughly 250 are operationally deployed. But Defense warned in 2020 that these forces would double by 2030.
China’s newest ICBMs have been deployed in a rail and road-mobile configuration. When not on rail or road deployment, these systems are stored in 3,100 miles of tunnels throughout the country.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports that one new Chinese missile, the long-range DF-41 ICBM, is designed to deliver as many as 10 independently targetable warheads with nuclear yields ranging from 20 to 250 kilotons. This capability, along with a new submarine-launched missile with six warheads and a new strategic bomber, could allow China to deploy more than 3,000 warheads on top of the 350 existing warheads.
The silo-based component of China’s nuclear force alone could be larger than the 1,550 operational nuclear warheads permitted to the U.S. or Russia under the 2009 New START agreement and could exceed the total number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons by 2030. The likelihood of further growth in the number of China’s strategic nuclear delivery systems is high given the momentum in its modernization program.
Even more worrying, in 2016 China also established its Strategic Support Force to enable the integration of cyber, space, electronic and information warfare with its nuclear operations. This approach provides China with a means to integrate all the most significant instruments of national power with its nuclear forces.
How can the U.S. respond to these alarming developments? The current recapitalization and modernization of the U.S. deterrent was based on assumptions about peer-competitor nuclear aspirations when President Obama signed New START. But the optimism Mr. Obama expressed in his 2009 Prague speech on disarmament no longer reflects global realities. The world has underestimated China’s determination to field dominant military capabilities in naval forces and strategic nuclear forces.
What’s next? China’s militarization of space.
Mr. Schneider is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He has served as an undersecretary of state and chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.
www.wsj.com
Beijing is adding warheads, missiles and subs at an alarming rate. The goal is global dominance.
By William Schneider Jr.
Sept. 7, 2021 6:09 pm ET
The military threat from Beijing is accelerating at a pace few anticipated. Recently released satellite imagery shows that China is rapidly constructing nearly 300 hardened underground silos in its western desert to house intercontinental ballistic missiles. Also unexpected was the revelation that China recently began work on a third site of similar size near Ordos City that was not previously associated with ICBMs.
This indicates that the Chinese have dramatically increased their operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads beyond even what was forecast by the Defense Department a year ago. The type of Chinese missile expected to be loaded into these particular silos is currently in serial production, so it won’t be long before these sites reach their full capability. According to Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, the scope and scale of these activities should be considered a “strategic breakout by China.”
Why was the West caught so off-guard? The U.S. and its allies have a persistent difficulty grasping the underlying aspirations of China’s economic, foreign and defense policy, resulting in dangerous misestimations of China’s security advances. The U.S. assumed China would always retain Mao’s “minimum deterrence” approach to nuclear weapons.
China aims to become the leading global economic and military power by midcentury. Although President Xi Jinping outlined this aspiration in 2011, it wasn’t formalized until the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017. The evidence affirms that China is seeking global military dominance, not “parity” with the West.
An early clue to China’s approach to defense modernization emerged as it built a Navy to meet global, not regional security needs. China’s naval shipbuilding infrastructure facilitated a rapid increase in naval vessels: By 2030 China’s naval forces will have an estimated 415 surface vessels and 99 manned and unmanned submarines, while the U.S. will have a maximum of 350 manned and unmanned surface ships and 66 submarines.
China has added an additional capability not found in Western navies: a capacity to control the sea from land. In August 2020, China launched an intermediate range missile from Western China and a medium range ballistic missile from Eastern China. This flexible, land-based capability could augment China’s naval forces almost anywhere in the world. The U.S.’s planned naval modernization efforts are far behind what will be needed to avoid being outflanked by China.
Western expectations for growth in China’s nuclear force were upended by obsolescent assumptions about the Chinese goal of minimum deterrence—a small number of missiles sufficient for deterrence in some circumstances, but little else. Since President Xi took office, China has increased the size and sophistication of its nuclear delivery systems. While China’s missiles were silo-based a decade ago, Beijing has developed a triad of land, sea and air-based nuclear capabilities. The Defense Department estimates the Chinese have 350 nuclear warheads, of which roughly 250 are operationally deployed. But Defense warned in 2020 that these forces would double by 2030.
China’s newest ICBMs have been deployed in a rail and road-mobile configuration. When not on rail or road deployment, these systems are stored in 3,100 miles of tunnels throughout the country.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports that one new Chinese missile, the long-range DF-41 ICBM, is designed to deliver as many as 10 independently targetable warheads with nuclear yields ranging from 20 to 250 kilotons. This capability, along with a new submarine-launched missile with six warheads and a new strategic bomber, could allow China to deploy more than 3,000 warheads on top of the 350 existing warheads.
The silo-based component of China’s nuclear force alone could be larger than the 1,550 operational nuclear warheads permitted to the U.S. or Russia under the 2009 New START agreement and could exceed the total number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons by 2030. The likelihood of further growth in the number of China’s strategic nuclear delivery systems is high given the momentum in its modernization program.
Even more worrying, in 2016 China also established its Strategic Support Force to enable the integration of cyber, space, electronic and information warfare with its nuclear operations. This approach provides China with a means to integrate all the most significant instruments of national power with its nuclear forces.
How can the U.S. respond to these alarming developments? The current recapitalization and modernization of the U.S. deterrent was based on assumptions about peer-competitor nuclear aspirations when President Obama signed New START. But the optimism Mr. Obama expressed in his 2009 Prague speech on disarmament no longer reflects global realities. The world has underestimated China’s determination to field dominant military capabilities in naval forces and strategic nuclear forces.
What’s next? China’s militarization of space.
Mr. Schneider is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He has served as an undersecretary of state and chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.
Opinion | China Sees Its Nuclear Arsenal as More Than a Deterrent
Beijing is adding warheads, missiles and subs at an alarming rate. The goal is global dominance.
www.wsj.com
