![]() Please therefore keep China’s interests in mind so that these weapons need never be used. These increasingly numerous, sophisticated missiles will be difficult to defend against. The PLA has ways to strike military bases and ships in the region that it finds menacing. In sum, while playing to a domestic audience on center stage, Xi also sent a clear message across the Taiwan Strait, the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Pacific: China has arrived as a great military power, and its interests must be taken seriously. A recent PLA Daily issue contains a particularly pointed article suggesting that the Party’s Army is on the cusp of major change.Xi's announcement in his pre-parade speech that 300,000 PLA troops would be cut provides reason to believe that these reforms are now officially under way. That’s likely why Xi appears poised to announce a sweeping set of reforms to restructure the PLA. A set of well-coordinated military organizations and their effective command and control is likewise essential. Part of an “Antiship Missile Formation” with the older YJ-83 (ASCM), the YJ-12 is estimated to have sea-skimming, or low-flying,terminal approach at Mach 2.2, making it extremely difficult to defend against, and 150 kg semi-armor piercing, high-explosive warhead.Īnd this was only a portion of China’s missile might: We’ll have to wait to see the DF-41 ICBM, YJ-18 ASCM, Wu-14 hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) and some other cutting-edge systems another day.įinally, as China’s commander-in-chief, Xi understands clearly that shiny hardware alone cannot confer military might. This was the first public appearance of the Yingji (YJ)-12 antiship cruise missile (ASCM). The ICBMs were displayed to enhance nuclear deterrence, and to remind potential adversaries that the DF-31A can be transported by road and is easily concealed, while the DF-5B is equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) that would greatly complicate intercept by a ballistic missile-defense system.īeyond the DF-series, the PLA paraded many air defense and antiship missiles, together with UAVs that might help target them. Yet another debutante fatale: the DF-16 MRBM, reportedly capable of striking military bases in Okinawa. In the Strangelovian logic of deterrence, a non-nuclear payload is seen as more “usable,” rendering deterrence more “credible.” The DF-26 as was described at the parade as a new missile with nuclear, conventional, and anti-ship variants. No other nation has such a system Washington and Moscow remain constrained by a treaty they signed in 1987.Īlso paraded for the first time: the DF-26, China’s first missile capable of striking Guam with a conventional warhead from a homeland-based launcher. carrier strike groups, the centerpiece of American seapower. Announced as an "assassin's mace" at the parade, if properly targeted, this missile has the potential to disable ships including U.S. Perhaps most dramatically, as part of an “Antiship Ballistic Missile Formation,” China displayed its DF-21D ASBM for the first time ever. ![]() What matters most: No fewer than seven missiles on parade were from China’s foremost set of major missiles, the Dongfeng (DF) series: the DF-10 anti-ship missile the DF-15B short-range ballistic missile DF-16 and DF-21D medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile missile (IRBM) and the DF-5B and DF-31A intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).Īll the major missiles were labeled with their English abbreviations in big white letters, likely to help guarantee that their presence isn’t lost on foreigners. Don’t be distracted by the striking marching formations. Hence the need to show a big stick-many big sticks, in fact several newly revealed to the world. And you can’t deter much without revealing armaments that an opponent would take seriously. Rather, he seeks to awe his potential adversaries into submission-or at least grudging acquiescence-regarding Beijing’s “core” interests and territorial claims. ![]() Comfortable as he is with wielding political power and military might, Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn’t want a war. and its allies in the unfortunate event of conflict. That’s one reason why so much advanced hardware was on display, and why so much of it was missiles-some of China’s most potent weapons, which could pose some of the greatest threats to the U.S. ![]()
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