1/31/2024 0 Comments Nuclear silo 60s2It is unlikely that even with its latest expansion, China will compete with Russia and the US. Responding to Insider in an email, Kristensen, who is also the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the FAS, agreed that silos were vulnerable to attack because they were stationary but added that attacks could also be detected and a "solution" was to "build a missile that can react fast enough to get out of the silo before it is destroyed."Īsked whether silos were considered outdated, Kristensen said: "Today, some of the most modern missiles are actually deployed in silos, so it is by no means considered old." Still, researchers wrote in the FAS study that if the new silos were all loaded with missiles, "Chinese ICBMs could potentially carry more than 875 warheads (assuming three warheads per missile) when the Yumen and Hami missile silo fields are completed," up from the approximately 185 warheads it has on ICBMs already. Without dismissing the possibility that China is pursuing nuclear expansion, Song said: "China has already used mobile launchers and discarded these fixed silos, which are time-consuming, labor-intensive, costly and vulnerable to be attacked and destroyed." Kristensen wrote in their study.Ĭhinese nuclear experts, however, dismissed The Washington Post's report on the discovery of a nuclear base under construction, with Song Zhongping, a former People's Liberation Army instructor, saying nuclear silos were outdated, according to the South China Morning Post. "The silo construction at Yumen and Hami constitutes the most significant expansion of the Chinese nuclear arsenal ever," the FAS researchers Matt Korda and Hans M. The latest revelation follows a separate discovery of 119 silos under construction near Yumen in the neighboring Gansu province last month, The Washington Post reported, using satellite images from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Monterey. These underground silos are typically used to house intercontinental ballistic missiles - long-range missiles designed to deliver nuclear payloads. Judging from the network grid, it could house as many as 110 silos. Using satellite images from the geospatial-data company Planet, they have discovered at least 14 silos and grounds cleared to build another 19. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.Ĭhina is constructing a network that could house up to 110 nuclear silos in a desert in the remote eastern part of the country's Xinjiang province, according to scientists from the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit global think tank.Īs first reported by The New York Times on Monday, scientists said construction at the site, near the city of Hami, most likely began around March. Researchers believe the new silos could raise China's nuclear capacity to more than 875 warheads.Ĭhina is the third-largest nuclear power, but its arsenal is dwarfed by those of the US and Russia. China may be building up to 110 nuclear silos, The New York Times reported.
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