WASHINGTON: China is building a second nuclear missile silo field that can accommodate around 110 silos when completed, according to a report from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
The second silo missile field is located 380 kilometers northwest of the Yumen field near the City of Hami Prefecture Level in East Xinjiang, the report said, citing commercial satellite imagery.
Last month, the Washington Post newspaper reported 120 silos seen on a site in the desert area in Yumen, in the North Province of Gansu, around 2,100 km from Beijing.
The Hami Missile Silo Field is in the development stage that is far earlier than the Yumen site.
Construction began in early March 2021 in the southeastern corner of the complex and continued at a fast speed, the report was released on Monday.
Since then, the Dome shelter has been established at least 14 silos and lands that are cleaned in preparation for the construction of 19 other silos.
Lines such as grids from all complex indicate that it can eventually cover around 110 silos, the FAS report said.
Previously, several Chinese media outlets managed by the government rejected reports on the field of the missile silo in Gansu, suggested it was a wind farm.
The Global Times Run China newspaper earlier this month showed that the US had repeatedly raised these problems based on speculative information.
“Their objectives are clear: to put the pressure of public opinion on the Chinese nuclear prevention building and force China to respond to their speculation.
They aim to inhibit China’s nuclear capacity building by making that problem and put China in a passive position to defend itself,” said at 2.
July.
But the FAS report commented that silo construction in Yumen and Hami was the most significant expansion of Chinese nuclear arsenal ever.
China for decades it operates around 20 silos for intercontinental fuel-fuel ballistic missiles DF-5 (ICBM).
With 120 silos in construction in the Yumen, 110 other silos in Hami, a dozen silos in JiLantai, and maybe more silos added in the existing DF-5 deployment area, Force Rocket People’s Liberation Forces (PLARF) seemed to have around 250 silos under construction – More than ten times the number of ICBM silos operates today, the report said.
“The number of new Chinese silos that are being built exceeds the number of Silo-based ICBM operated by Russia and is more than half of the size of all US ICBM strength.
The Chinese Misil Silo program is the most extensive silo construction since the US and US Soviet silos construction during the Cold War, “FAS report said.
The report said the manufacture of 250 new silos would move China from the “Minimum Prevention” category.
“The buildup is nothing but ‘minimum’ and it seems to be part of a race for more nuclear arms to compete better with Chinese enemies,” according to Matt Korda and Hans Kristensen, who wrote the FAS report.
US defense officials have expressed concern about Chinese nuclear buildup.
In a statement given to CNN, a US State Department spokesman described a buildup that appeared as “very concerned,” noting that it raises questions about the true intention of China.
“Apart from the confusion of the PRC, this rapid buildup has become more difficult to hide and highlight how China deviates from a few decades of nuclear strategy based on minimum prevention,” said a spokesman, referring to China with an acronym for its official name, the People’s Republic of China.
“This progress highlights why in everyone’s interest that nuclear power talks to each other directly about reducing nuclear danger and avoiding calculation errors,” said the spokesman.