America’s adversaries continue to modernize and build arms while it disarms and lulls itself into a false sense of security without barely any concern. If you think China (or Russia) is worried about “MAD”, you might have to ask yourself the following:
Who has hundreds of nuclear-hardened bunkers throughout their country and who doesn’t?
Who has road-mobile ICBMs and who doesn’t?
Who hasn’t had a new nuclear missile in over 30 years?
Who has their aging nuclear missiles pointed only into the ocean and who has theirs pointed only at their adversary?
If you aren’t concerned, you’re not awake.
A forthcoming report from the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission indicates that two brigades of DF-21D ballistic missiles have already entered service with the People’s Liberation Army, Bill Gertz, senior editor of Washington Free Beacon, wrote in an article on Oct. 13.
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Despite the strong trade and financial links between Beijing and Washington, the report said that the Communist Party government in China still views the United States as its primary adversary. China’s rapid military buildup is changing the balance of power in the Western Pacific, it said, which may bring destabilizing security competition between China and its neighbors while exacerbating regional hotspots in Taiwan, the Korean peninsula, and the East and South China seas.
The report states that China may begin the deployment of its new new ultra-high speed strategic strike vehicle, the Wu-14, by 2020. The vehicle can glide to its targets at a speed of up to nearly 8,000 miles per hour. “Hypersonic glide vehicles could render existing US missile defense systems less effective and potentially obsolete,” the report said. Meanwhile, the report also described China’s large-scale buildup of both conventional and nuclear-armed missiles as a serious threat.
China has deployed DF-21C theater-range missiles with a range of about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) against potential targets in Japan and South Korea. It is apparently developing another system called the DF-16. A more advanced intermediate-range missile set to be deployed in the next five years will be able to hit US forces in Guam, Australia’s Northern Territory, the Middle East and Indian Ocean. Two brigades of DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles have also entered service in southeastern and northeastern China.
However, the Pentagon has not release an assessment of China’s nuclear forces since 2006. Back then, the PLA was estimated to have more than 100 nuclear warheads. Current estimates made by non-government analysts estimate the number of warheads in China’s arsenal at anywhere between 250 and 3,000.
Full article: PLA’s DF-21D missiles already in service, says US report (Want China Times)
Global Geopolitics 