What’s New
The United States Defense Department on Wednesday revealed the locations of hundreds of China’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos, as shown in a new Newsweek map. The ICBMs are all capable of reaching the U.S. mainland in the event of a nuclear conflict.
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Why It Matters
The revelation came from the Pentagon‘s latest report on Chinese military power, which claimed that China now possesses over 600 operational nuclear warheads, about 100 more than its estimate last year, as well as 400 missiles and 550 launchers for its ICBM force.
China has stopped engaging in arms control talks with the U.S. over American arms sales to Taiwan and Beijing has demanded Washington take what it calls “special and primary responsibility” to drastically and substantively reduce the number of nuclear weapons.
What To Know
According to the Pentagon, the Chinese ICBM force is composed of the DF-5, the DF-31, and the DF-41 classes of nuclear missiles. While the DF-5 is a silo-based system and the DF-41 is a road-mobile system, the DF-31 can be launched from both silos and vehicles.
Launchers for the silo-based ICBMs are located at three silo fields in desert areas across northern China, with a total of 320 silos, as well as at five sites in central and southeastern China, with a total of 48 silos that are currently exclusively used for the DF-5.
The report assessed that China “probably began to load across its three new silo fields,” which are located at Hami, Yumen and Yulin. The report said 30 DF-5 silos have also been constructed at sites in Jingxian, Yueyang and Luanchuan since 2017.
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said the Chinese silo fields appear intended for the DF-31A, one of the DF-31’s variants. China test-launched another variant, the DF-31AG, in September.
GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images
Besides its existing ICBMs, China is also developing new ICBMs that can carry multiple nuclear warheads, significantly improving its nuclear missile forces, the Pentagon added. However, the new missiles will require China to increase its nuclear warhead production.
While its ICBMs are now nuclear-armed, China may be exploring the development of conventionally-armed, intercontinental-range missiles, according to the Pentagon, which would enable it to conduct non-nuclear strikes on the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii.
What People Are Saying
A senior U.S. defense official said during a briefing on Monday: “On the [Chinese] ICBM, the overall kind of trajectory of the force here is about developing more and more survivable ICBMs. So more numbers and greater survivability to improve their nuclear capable missile forces.”
Hans Kristensen said in an article published on Wednesday: “The [Chinese] ICBM estimate appears to come with several caveats. One is that the number of ICBM launchers is not the same as the number of operational ICBMs. A silo launcher appears to be counted when construction is completed, whether it is operational with missile or not.”
What Happens Next
China is likely to load all the silo fields with missiles as it continued what the Pentagon called a rapid nuclear expansion, seeking to build a larger and more diverse nuclear force. It might also conduct another round of test launches of nuclear missiles in the future.
