Under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the United States and Russia are each allowed to have 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads. counterforce targeting, meaning the targeting of the enemy’s military infrastructure. The second reason could be to complicate U.S. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. The adoption of a launch-on-warning policy would increase the survivability of China’s strategic nuclear weapons and bring them closer to the standard of the United States and Russia. Adding strength to this theory are reports that Russia has been assisting China to build a ballistic missile early warning system. This would mean most if not all the silos will probably be filled with the DF-41 and China will utilize an early warning system to detect an enemy attack and respond by launching its ICBMs before they can be destroyed in the silos. The first reason could simply be to adopt a launch-on-warning policy. These reasons are not mutually exclusive. There could be two primary reasons why President Xi Jinping has decided to build over 100 new ICBM silos. Let’s start by putting ourselves in China’s position. What threat do these ICBM silos pose for the United States and what should the U.S. This is a formidable strategic weapon seemingly designed to be utilized as a component of a launch-on-warning policy while deployed in hardened silos. Estimates vary, but the DF-41 is rumored to be able to carry anywhere from three to 10 nuclear warheads. This ICBM can reach the continental United States, is solid-fueled, and is believed to eventually be a replacement for the liquid-fueled, silo-based DF-5 ICBM.
Chinese media have since claimed that the structures are actually part of a wind farm, but the experts behind the Post piece stand by their analysis.Īnalysts indicate that these silos will probably house the newest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the Chinese strategic nuclear arsenal, the DF-41. The Washington Post recently reported that over 100 missile silos have been discovered being built in a desert near the city of Yumen in China.