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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China surpasses US in number of ICBM launchers |
| 2023-02-08 |
| [Defense News] China now has more Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launchers than the U.S. according to a congressional notification from U.S. Strategic Command, or STRATCOM, which oversees the nuclear arsenal. The notification highlights China’s rapid advancements in its nuclear modernization program in recent years and has prompted congressional Republicans to call for "higher numbers and new capabilities" in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. "It is not an understatement to say that the Chinese nuclear modernization program is advancing faster than most believed possible," Republican leaders on the congressional Armed Services Committee and strategic forces panels said in a joint statement. "We have no time to waste in adjusting our nuclear force posture to deter both Russia and China." House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who issued the statement alongside Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., previously singled out U.S. nuclear modernization to deter China, Russia and North Korea as one of his priorities for this year. STRATCOM is required to notify Congress if China surpasses the U.S. in certain elements of its nuclear program, including the number of ICBM launchers. It provided Congress with a classified notification in November, prompting pushback from Republicans who noted that the law requires an unclassified notification as well. The unclassified STRATCOM notice did not disclose how many launchers China possesses while noting it provided Congress with additional classified updates. The U.S. has 450 ICBM launchers. The Pentagon’s 2022 China military power report noted that Beijing had approximately 300 ICBMs with the caveat that it "appears to be doubling the numbers of launchers in some ICBM units." The report also found that China’s warhead stockpile has surpassed 400 and projected that "it will likely field a stockpile of about 1,500 warheads by its 2035 timeline" if it continues its current rate of nuclear expansion. The U.S. stockpile contained 3,750 nuclear warheads as of 2021, including 1,515 deployed warheads on ICBM launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers. |
| Posted by:Thruter Gloluger6393 |
| #1 call for "higher numbers and new capabilities" Archaic thinking assumes a MAD strategy would continue to be embraced by both sides. It's quite clear the Chinese have a different value perspective of their population(s) than do we. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-02-08 09:40 |