China Has World’s Most Active Missile Programs, U.S. Says
By Tony Capaccio - Jul 10, 2013 9:56 AM PT
China’s military has the world’s “most active and diverse ballistic missile program,” with an expanding inventory of nuclear warheads that can reach the U.S., according to a Pentagon intelligence report.
The arsenal includes a new submarine-launched JL-2 ballistic missile that will “for the first time allow Chinese” submarines “to target portions of the United States from operating areas located near the Chinese coast,” according to the new assessment by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.
China is expanding its missile programs as the Pentagon pursues a policy of putting more emphasis on U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Some of China’s weapons are “specifically designed to prevent adversary military forces’s access to regional conflicts,” according to the report.
China is “developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading missile systems and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses,” according to the “Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat” report obtained by Bloomberg News. It’s an update to one released in 2009.
“China can already target the United States with a relatively small force” of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the number of nuclear warheads “capable of reaching the United States could expand to well over 100 within the next 15 years,” it said.
The conclusions on China are part of a report that surveys world developments in ballistic-missile technology and trends, including in North Korea, Iran, India and Pakistan.
The National Air and Space Intelligence Center, at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is the Pentagon’s top provider of aerospace intelligence.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
The arsenal includes a new submarine-launched JL-2 ballistic missile that will “for the first time allow Chinese” submarines “to target portions of the United States from operating areas located near the Chinese coast,” according to the new assessment by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.
China is expanding its missile programs as the Pentagon pursues a policy of putting more emphasis on U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Source: AFP via Getty Images
A Chinese boy stands on a boat carrying sea-to-air missiles at the Military Museum in Beijing. Photographer: Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
China is “developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading missile systems and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses,” according to the “Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat” report obtained by Bloomberg News. It’s an update to one released in 2009.
“China can already target the United States with a relatively small force” of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the number of nuclear warheads “capable of reaching the United States could expand to well over 100 within the next 15 years,” it said.
The conclusions on China are part of a report that surveys world developments in ballistic-missile technology and trends, including in North Korea, Iran, India and Pakistan.
The National Air and Space Intelligence Center, at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is the Pentagon’s top provider of aerospace intelligence.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
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