China test mobile missile capable of hitting US with nukes

Bill Gertz:
China’s military recently carried out a third test of a long-range DF-31A ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States with nuclear warheads.

U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports said the flight test of a DF-31A road-mobile ICBM took place July 24 in China and highlights Beijing’s large-scale nuclear force buildup.
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By contrast, the Obama administration has put off U.S. ICBM tests several times in recent years in what military officials said were politically motivated delays. A Minuteman III missile test was put off last year until after the presidential election and delayed again until May over concerns an ICBM flight test would be misconstrued by North Korea, which has its own long-range missiles.
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It could not be learned whether the latest test involved a single dummy warhead or multiple warheads.

China is developing multiple-independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, for its missiles and also has used decoy warheads designed to fool U.S. missile defense sensors.

A recently published report by the Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center concluded “China has the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world.”

“It is developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses,” the report said. “The Chinese ballistic missile force is expanding in both size and types of missiles.”

According to the report, China’s military has “more than 15” DF-31A launchers for the solid-fueled, single-warhead ICBM that has a range greater than 6,835 miles. Other missile specialists say the DF-31A is capable of carrying up to five nuclear warheads.

The July 24 DF-31A test came exactly a year after the Chinese conducted what U.S. officials said was one of the first flight tests of a new longer-range ICBM called the DF-41, which is expected to be China’s first long-range missile outfitted with multiple warheads.
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There is much more.

The Chicoms appear serious about building a system to evade the US missile shield.  It is passing strange that Obama is negotiating with Russia on its missiles and is ignoring the Chinese threat.  We need to build more sophisticated missile defense systems and especially launch phase system which could take out the missile before it could launch any decoys.

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