China achieves ICBM ability to strike US

[neuromancer]

The Indian Express
Posted online: Thursday, June 23, 2005 at 0052 hours IST

WASHINGTON: China has achieved intercontinental missile strike capability from land or from a submarine, enabling it for the first time to target parts of the US from the Chinese coast, a report said on Wednesday. China has had land-based capability for quite some time with the DF-31 missile.

About 10 days ago, it flight-tested a JT-2 missileâ ”a submarine version of the DF-31â ”and it proved the same capability of hitting a target 6,000 miles away. The successful flight-testing of the submarine-launched missile, US officials said, marks a major advance in Beijing's long-range nuclear programme.

The testâ ”monitored by American intelligence agenciesâ ”''is a significant milestone in their effort to develop strategic weapons,'' a US official said. The JL-2 intercontinental missile was launched from a Chinese submarine near the Port of Qingdao and tracked to a desert impact point in western China several thousand miles away, the US said. â ”PTI

 

[Fry]

with all the tension among nations nowadays, this is some very serious news indeed.

 

[Gouki]

Well ain't that a ray of sunshine....

 

[neuromancer]

I would say Taiwan has more to worry about than the US, but still, its not very good news.

 

[Britney Spears]

This isn't exactly news, the existance of the JL2/DF-31 has been known for years, this was merely the first public test.


The real breakthrough, IMO, will come when they perfect MIRV technology. The TMD and Continental missile defence systems currently in place have(or probably will have, in the near future) a reasonably good chance of destroying a single RV, but MIRVs like the US Peacekeeper and the Russian RT-23UTTH/SS-24 would be much, much more difficult to counter.

 

[Fry]

well it was news to me.  Although I agree that each nation should have the capabilities to defend itself, I dunno... guess we'll have to wait this one out and see what happens, lol.

 

[Hedgehog18]

Im not scard being on the east coast lol but china would not fire on america for a few reasons.. one they dont have enough or the knoledge to get all american missles and subs 2 americas counter attack would turn china in to a parking lot and 3 russias counter attack would turn that parking lot in to a night light lol

imo
Howie

 

[Fry]

now a days, with things going as they are, you never know what'll happen.

 

[Island Ryhno]

Hedgehog, I wouldn't count on China being turned into a parking lot by the US. This is not Iraq that they would be dealing with. You're talking about a nation with 1 billion people, that's a lot of troops. Also the US would be loathe to use ICBM's, as gung ho as people paint them to be, the americans have a very keen awareness of the worlds politcal situation. Launching any sort of nuclear attack would give every US hating nation with Nuclear capability a reason to launch on them. I think it would be a intensely fierce war if it happened. I think this is the most likely WWIII scenario. More likely a US - Korean action with China coming in and then a very quick escalation involving all the good and bad guys! Just an opinion.

 

[Fry]

sounds like a good opinion to me... China is a very large country indeed. Any country that's capable of long range missiles or nulcear warfare should be closely monitored. Hopefully the UN will step in and stop anything before anything too durastic happens.

 

[tomahawk6]

A nuclear attack upon the US by the PRC WILL result in a nuclear response.
Second, the US ABM defense is evolving and will be able to counter a limited attack.
Third, the US will follow PRC boomers if they leave coastal waters. We did this in the cold war with Russian boomers.

 

[FredDaHead]

To quote Crimson Tide... "In the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself."

I think if any one country launches even one nuke against any other country, we'll be facing a nuclear holocaust. Thus, countries with nukes will most likely just hang on to them as a deterrent, and not as an actual weapon of war.

The idea that China has ICBMs that can reach the US is scary, but not any more scary than Soviet ICBMs twenty years ago, or Cuban ICBMs forty years ago. Like tomahawk6 said, US subs will be on Chinese boomers if there's any reason to believe an attack is coming up. I'm not privvy to what the Chinese submarines are capable of, but I'd assume it's not, if any, higher than Russian subs.

All in all, this is just some more bad news.

 

[tomahawk6]

During the time frame of this test the PRC also tested a new BVR weapon -  PL-12 air-to-air missile. This might be even more troubling. It is purported to have a 50 mile head on range and a max speed of Mach 4. This would certainly be bad news for Taiwan.

 

[neuromancer]

To be honest I think the article is a bit missleading.

Ok, so the Chinese submarine mounted ICBM that has a range of 6k
miles, naturally we look at a map and we say "oh poop! the US is in range!"

But what would be the advantage of China doing a preemptive
attack on the US? None that I can see.

So why dont we get out our handy-dandy protractor and make a 6k
radius around the country of China including its coastal waters to the
east and south.

Hmm.. boy, thats frightening.

Now lets compare that list of kill zones to targets that China
might possibly be interested in.

AFAIK there are only two areas that China has the hots for right
now, Taiwan and possibly Siberia.

Now, since russia has lots of nukes and fighting with them would
be very messy and expensive, what option does that leave us?

The bell tolls for thee Taiwan. Sorry.

 

[TCBF]

" Hopefully the UN will step in and stop anything before anything too durastic happens."

- UN?   UN?   Led by Kofi Annan, whose son is involved in the 'Oil for food' scandal?   Who replaced Bhoutros Bhoutrous Ghali, reponsible for allowing mass murder?   Where you can buy a country's vote with a $2,000 hooker?   That UN?   Sodom on the Hudson?

UN?   196 countries and - what? - 24 democracies?

Nope.

Might as well rely on the Fuhrerbunker in 1943 to make humanitarian decisions, as the UN of 2005.

Tom

 

[Britney Spears]

During the time frame of this test the PRC also tested a new BVR weapon -  PL-12 air-to-air missile. This might be even more troubling. It is purported to have a 50 mile head on range and a max speed of Mach 4. This would certainly be bad news for Taiwan.

Doubtful, even the most optumistic estimates I've seen say 70km, so the true range is probably a less than that. In any case, the Chinese Su-30MKK is already equipped with the R-77/AA-12 "Adder", with a range of 90 km and a speed of over Mach 4  on paper, it outranges the MICA carried by the TWese Mirage 2000s (90km vs 10 km) and *might* outrange AIM-120 on the F-16. I think the true range of the AIM-120 is still classified is it not? Wikipedia only says "over 20 kms". Maybe they mean the same thing as when they say the range of the Hellfire is "over 3750 meters" ?

In any case, I think the tracking radar and guidance on the TWese planes are probably still more advanced than the Chinese ones.

 

[tomahawk6]

Some estimates of the PL-12 is that it is superior to Aim-120.

 

[Britney Spears]

Maybe the older variants used by Taiwan.


WIthout any more ungrounded speculation, let's just say that it's highly unlikely that the PL-12 can match the performance of the AIM-120C/D, slated to be the main BVRAAM for the F/A-22. The Chinese being a generation or two behind the west in these matters and all....

 

[TCBF]

" The Chinese being a generation or two behind the west in these matters and all...."

- Behind in development - ahead in thievery.  If you can't design it - steal it.

Tom

 

[Fry]

seems to me as if Britney spears is underestimating the capability and firepower of the chinese. Sure they aren't the number one superpower on the planet, but weapons are weapons.