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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 521
with an additional, survivable nuclear option. China will deploy several new
conventional and nuclear variants of MRBMs and IRBMs for regional
contingencies and to augment its long-range missile forces. China is also
developing air- and groundlaunched cruise missiles that could have a nuclear
capability.
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China's current nuclear missile inventory is represented in Table 19-3, shown below,
which was obtained from the DoD report.
Table 19-3
China's Missile Forces
China's Missile Inventory
Total
Launchers/Missiles
Estimated Range
CSS-4 ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)
20/20
8,460+ km
CSS-3 ICBM
10-14/20-24
5,470+ km
CSS-2 IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile)
6-10/14-18
2,790+ km
CSS-5 MRBM Mod ½ (Medium Range)
34-38/19-50
1,770+ km
JL-1 SLBM (Submarine Launch Ballistic Missile)
10-14/10-14
1,770+ km
CSS-6 SRBM (Short Range Ballistic Missile)
70-80/275-315
600 km
CSS-7 SRBM
100-120/435-475
300 km
JL-2 SLBM
Developmental
8,000+ km
DF-31 ICBM
Developmental
7,250+ km
DF-31A ICBM
Developmental
11,270+ km
Note: China's SRBM has grown significantly in the past few years. China's Second Artillery
maintains at least five operational SRBM brigades; another brigade is deployed with the PLA
ground forces garrisoned in the Nanjing Military Region. All of these units are deployed to
locations close to Taiwan.
Source: Military Power Of The People's Republic Of China 2006, Annual Report to Congress, p. 50 (table 15),
Office Of The Secretary Of Defense, Department of Defense.
Currently China has only one Xia class submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles
but they are determined to improve on this. They are “working on a new SSBN program called
Project 094. The new sub class is expected to carry 16 three-stage JL-2 SLBMs... there is
speculation that the JL-2 may be equipped with multiple warheads, but US intelligence credits
the missile with only a single warhead. The Pentagon optimistically predicts the deployment of
the JL-2 in 2008-2010.”
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