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China today said it has successfully tested a new guided missile in the Bohai Sea near the tense Korean peninsula to raise the operational capability of its armed forces and "effectively respond to threats" to national security.

The People's Liberation Army Rocket (Missile) Force tested the new missile in the Bohai based on annual training programme, the defence ministry said in a brief statement.

The missile was designed to "raise operational capability" of the armed forces to "effectively respond to threats" to national security, it said, adding that the test had "achieved an expected result." However, the statement did not specify when the missile was tested. It just said the test was carried out recently.

The ministry has not released any further information about the missile, state-run CGTN reported today.

The Bohai Sea is a body of water off the coasts of Tianjin municipality, Shandong, Hebei and Liaoning provinces. The test was carried amid China's vociferous protests over US deployment of THAAD interceptor missiles in South Korea, whose powerful radars could see through most part of China including its missile development programme.

THAAD's deployment in South Korea has infuriated China, which fears it will weaken its own ballistic missile capabilities and says it upsets the regional security balance. The THAAD system is designed to intercept and destroy short and medium-range ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight.

The US said the THAAD deployment was aimed at countering any missile attack by North Korea against South Korea, Japan and US itself. China has vowed appropriate response for THAAD missile batteries.

China also said its troops carried out exercises close the North Korean border as US President Donald Trump stepped up pressure on the North Korean leader Kim-Jong-un to scale back the nuclear and missile programme.

China, an acknowledged missile power, has several short, medium and long range missiles. Its Dong Feng 31 (DF-31) is the longest with a range of 11,700 kms.

In 2015, China for the first time demonstrated a whole range of long, medium and short range missiles during a military parade. It included Dongfeng-21D missile, the anti-ship ballistic missile described as the "carrier killer".

It had caused concern among US defence officials as it reportedly has the ability to blow up aircraft carriers from a distance of about 1,500 km to 1,700 kms.
 
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China on Tuesday said it has successfully tested a new guided missile in the Bohai Sea near the tense Korean peninsula to raise the operational capability of its armed forces and "effectively respond to threats" to national security.

The People's Liberation Army Rocket (Missile) Force tested the new missile in the Bohai based on annual training programme, the defence ministry said in a brief statement.

The missile was designed to "raise operational capability" of the armed forces to "effectively respond to threats" to national security, it said, adding that the test had "achieved an expected result."

However, the statement did not specify when the missile was tested. It just said the test was carried out recently.

The ministry has not released any further information about the missile, state-run CGTN reported.

The Bohai Sea is a body of water off the coasts of Tianjin municipality, Shandong, Hebei and Liaoning provinces. The test was carried amid China's vociferous protests over US deployment of THAAD interceptor missiles in South Korea, whose powerful radars could see through most part of China including its missile development programme.

THAAD's deployment in South Korea has infuriated China, which fears it will weaken its own ballistic missile capabilities and says it upsets the regional security balance. The THAAD system is designed to intercept and destroy short and medium-range ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight. The US said the THAAD deployment was aimed at countering any missile attack by North Korea against South Korea, Japan and US itself.

China has vowed appropriate response for THAAD missile batteries.

China also said its troops carried out exercises close the North Korean border as US President Donald Trump stepped up pressure on the North Korean leader Kim-Jong-un to scale back the nuclear and missile programme.

China, an acknowledged missile power, has several short, medium and long range missiles. Its Dong Feng 31 (DF-31) is the longest with a range of 11,700 kms.

In 2015, China for the first time demonstrated a whole range of long, medium and short range missiles during a military parade. It included Dongfeng-21D missile, the anti-ship ballistic missile described as the "carrier killer".

It had caused concern among US defence officials as it reportedly has the ability to blow up aircraft carriers from a distance of about 1,500 km to 1,700 kms.

Representative image



http://www.rediff.com/news/report/china-tests-new-guided-missile-near-korean-peninsula/20170509.htm
 
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US Concern Mounts About Chinese Military Modernization, Navy Size, Hypersonic Weapons

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China experts told Congress about growing concerns regarding Chinese military modernization such as nuclear weapons, Navy fleet growth, hypersonic weapons and submarines.

By Daniel L. Kuester, U.S. Naval War College Public Affairs - Feb. 27, 2017

NEWPORT, R.I. – An expert on the faculty of U.S. Naval War College (NWC) in Newport, Rhode Island updated Congress on China’s current military capabilities, possible intentions, and what he sees as the future options in the region at a governmental committee meeting.

Andrew S. Erickson, professor of strategy at NWC in the China Maritime Studies Institute testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington.

My key points are, with its ambitious ASBM (anti-ship ballistic missile) development, China is challenging U.S. Asia-Pacific interests and military influence in new ways,” said Erickson. “This is part of a much larger Chinese counter-intervention effort that is advancing significantly regardless of precise ASBM capabilities or limitations. While China’s missiles pose potential challenges to U.S. forces, ensuring that they can be targeted effectively is expensive and creates growing space-based electromagnetic spectrum vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

The hearing was co-chaired by Carolyn Bartholomew and Sen. James Talent of Missouri.

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Erickson went on to say that select regions are particularly active for the Chinese military right now.

In what it (China) considers the near seas (the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and the South China Sea), Beijing enjoys powerful synergies and advantages vis-à-vis the disputed sovereignty claims it pursues there,” Erickson testified, “increasingly in defiance of regional stability and international laws and norms, and supported by precision-targeted systems designed to challenge American sea control and make American intervention risky.

The panel was titled China’s Hypersonic and Maneuverable Re-Entry Vehicle Programs and also included James Acton, co-director of Nuclear Policy Program and senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Mark Stokes, executive director, Project 2049 Institute.

In closing, Erickson gave USCC some direction on where U.S. policy might go next.

U.S. policymakers should enhance efforts at developing tailored countermeasures, particularly concerning electronic warfare,” Erickson said. “(U.S. should also) attempt to ensure that China doesn’t develop Scarborough Shoal into a key targeting node in the South China Sea, and increase U.S. Navy ship numbers to avoid presenting China with an over-concentrated target set.

The USCC was created by the United States Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.


READ ALSO:
My Testimony before the U.S.-China Commission—“Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Development and Counter-intervention Efforts”—Hearing on China’s Advanced Weapons | Andrew S. Erickson 2017-02-23
 
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DF-26 brigade trains with quick shots

By Henri Kenhmann - East Pendulum- 31 March 2017

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A brigade of Chinese rocket forces recently conducted a nocturnal exercise during which DF-26 long range ballistic missile simulations were conducted, based on a new TV report from the national channel CCTV-7.

Although the military journalists of the Chinese army did not reveal any information about the missile unit, location or even the missile model, it was still possible to identify the missile with a few images identified in the video .

Indeed, the TEL (transporter erector launcher) vehicles that can be seen at the beginning of the report have six axles, two in the front and four in the rear. This configuration is typical of the TEL 12 × 12 of DF-26, model HTF-5680 designed by the Taian subsidiary of the Chinese group CASC.

One can also notice the conical "hollow", of particular shape which distinguishes it from that of the TELs of DF-21C and DF-21D, which can be seen in the middle of the driver's cabin in a passage of the video.

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The cabin of DF-26 TEL, look at the conical shape in the middle

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The HTF-5680 model TELs developed for the IRBM DF-26 ballistic missile

During this exercise, the battalions of this DF-26 brigade were ordered to disperse to five shooting sites. Operators have been trained in camouflage against the passage of reconnaissance satellites, countermeasures against communication interference, as well as resistance to precision and biochemical strikes.

According to Colonel Lu Kangwen (吕康文), commander of the brigade in maneuver, this night exercise aims to check the ability of its troops to carry out the burst fire, the rapid launch and also the redeployment on several different sites.

Due to a suspensive base placed at the bottom of the missile tube, like the RSD-10 Pioneer missile system (NATO Code SS-20), the launch of DF-26 no longer requires well-prepared firing sites and fixed coordinates. It can, in principle, be launched without restrictive condition of the ground, thus improving the mobility and survival of the TEL, and the speed of launch.

It should be noted that Col. Lu had been responsible for the equipment service of another DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile brigade based in Qingyuan, southern China. This promotion to the command of a DF-26 brigade therefore remains consistent because this IRBM, with a range of 4,000 to 5,000 km, also has the function of striking large naval targets such as aircraft carriers.

This element also suggests that the DF-26 brigade in question is also based in southern China, probably in the mountainous province of Yunnan. It could therefore be a new unit equipped with this intermediate-range ballistic missile.

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The (estimated) range of the DF-26 missile from Kunming, southern China

A final point of interest - at the end of the CCTV-7 report, TELs of DF-21D can be spotted too. Although the idea is tempting to say that the PLA Rocket Forces are maneuvering together two types of anti-ship ballistic missiles, but in reality these sequences most likely have nothing to do with the rapid firing of DF-26 right here.

Henri K.
 
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DF-26B: A new variant of the Chinese long-range ASBM

By Henri Kenhmann - East Pendulum - 08 May 2017

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Chinese Rocket Forces - the country's strategic deterrent - may have completed a new operational test for the DF-26B ballistic missile, a variant of the DF-26 IRBM / long range ASBM, within April if an amateur video taken in Inner Mongolia could be relied upon.

Visibly recorded using a mobile phone, it can be seen that the person who recorded it revolved around a cylindrical object about 5 meter long and 1.5 meters in diameter, on which there is a clear inscription of "E/ADF-26B".

The letter E here means Er (二 in Chinese) which stands for 二炮 (Second Artillery Corps), the former name of the PLA Rocket Forces. And the letter A is the acronym of "Missile" according to the Chinese nomination standard.

Therefore if our first evaluation is accurate, it is a ballistic missile of model DF-26B of the PLA Rocket Forces.


This hull, which is likely to be part of the first or second stage of the missile, plus another wreck smaller in size and embedded in the ground on the side, were found by the local inhabitants of the Siziwang Banner 四子王旗, an administrative region of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to the video provider. The faces of the people filmed seem to confirm this very valuable information.

Indeed, the Siziwang Banner is not on the usual route of Chinese ballistic test fire, which is expected to be much further west, over a large area between Ningxia and Xinjiang provinces.

This implies that the DF-26B was launched from northeast China, over the Korean Peninsula, and across the country to the west.

Consider now all the bases of the PLA Rocket Forces, the only possible missile starting points, which correspond to these hypotheses, are located in Jingyu or Tonghua of base No. 51 in Jilin Province near the border of North Korea.

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The location of the Siziwang Banner 四子王旗, which is a banner (county equivalent) in the Ulanqab region of
Inner Mongolia, China. It is located about 80 km north to Hohhot, the capital city of that province.


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The possible trajectory of the DF-26B launch

Assuming that the DF-26B missile had actually left Tonghua for example, it would be noticed that the straight line across Tonghua and the Siziwang Banner joins Minfeng, a Chinese ballistic test impact site south to the Taklamakan Desert.

And, the distance between Tonghua and Minfeng is just over 3,700 km, equivalent to the estimated range of DF-26.

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From Tonghua to Minfeng, passing by the Siziwang Banner

All of these elements therefore suggest that a combat unit of the PLA Rocket Forces carried out this operational shooting in "Full Range" mode.

Knowing that the DF-26 is officially presented as an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warhead, in order to strike fixed ground targets or "large ships" in motion, several possibilities are available for us to learn what variant of DF-26B this is:
  1. A variant of Ground-Ground nuclear
  2. A variant of Ground-Ground conventional
  3. A variant of Ground-Sea conventional
  4. A variant of extended range
But considering the scope of the firing, the location of its launch and the geopolitical context around that time, we are focusing more on the third possibility, namely a long-range anti-ship variant. This remains to be confirmed, of course.

Finally, when was this DF-26B shot?

The amateur video was posted for the first time on Sunday, April 23rd, 2017. However, there had been no officially published notification, such as NOTAMs, to indicate the firing. And we are not sure whether the date on which the video was published corresponds to the launch date.

By looking in our tracking database on Chinese ballistic missiles that took place before April 23, some could match the trajectory sought. One can quote for example the shot of 13 April, or the double shot of 15 April.

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In yellow lines, the aerial segments closed during the ballistic tests on April 13 and 15.

It should be noted that this may not be the first operational shot of DF-26B. Indeed, if we compare the photos of the wreck of another DF-26 shot that took place in August 2016, there are indeed similarities. For those who are interested, you can check our article "DF-26: the 1st operational fire after the entry into service" and have your own ideas.

To be continued.

Henri K.

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The untouched question now is what difference between the A and B models? More range? Higher accuracy? Better penetration (hardened head)? :D :P
 
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Stills from a video published in April showing what appears to be a jettisoned motor section from a multi-stage ballistic missile in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Source: Tencent video

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force has successfully test-fired a new missile in the Bohai Sea amid tensions with Seoul and Washington over the deployment of the US Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to South Korea.

In reply to a media enquiry about a recent missile test, the Information Bureau of China's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a 9 May statement that the Rocket Force had "conducted an operational test for its new-type missile weapons in waters of the Bohai Sea and achieved its expected results".

It implied the test was a routine, saying it was carried out "in accordance to the annual training plan to enhance the combat skills of the force and its ability to handle threats to national security".

The statement did not identify the missiles or say when the test took place, but it came about two weeks after video footage emerged on Chinese online forums showing what appeared to be a motor section from a multi-stage ballistic missile that was jettisoned, reportedly over the Siziwang area in China's autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, as part of a missile test launch.

The markings E/ADF-26B could be seen on the object, suggesting it was a stage from a variant of the two-stage DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Released around 23 April, the footage shows the motor case in relatively good condition, given the impact of it falling back to the ground. At the rear of the motor case a single nozzle aperture is present, with the nozzle assembly and most of the supporting structures broken off and missing.

It appears the front of the motor case struck the ground, leaving a large crater and damaging and scattering parts of what seem to be inter-stage components. From image scaling, the motor case appears to be approximately 6 m long with a diameter of around 1.4 m.

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The Dongfeng 21 东风 (DF-21)

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Via @xinfengcao 2017.05.15
 
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China’s latest missile test shows country can respond to aircraft carriers, THAAD

By Deng Xiaoci | Global Times Published: 2017-05-10

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China's DF-26 in picture. The new variant tested is DF-26B.

China's successful test of a new type of guided missile in the Bohai Sea killed two birds with one stone, experts told the Global Times, as the launch shows China can attack both aircraft carriers and the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system deployed in South Korea.

"To judge from the missile remains disclosed by media, it was a DF-26 that was tested recently, also known as the 'aircraft carrier killer' missile," Song Zhongping, a military expert who used to serve in the PLA Rocket Force, told the Global Times

"Considering the type of missile and the test location it is evident that we conducted a firing experiment targeting aircraft carriers, and the warhead possibly featured an electromagnetic pulse that could destroy a carrier's command system, as well as the THAAD system," Song noted.

When asked if the test's location in the Bohai Sea, close to the Korean Peninsula, could show that the test was specifically aimed at Seoul's THAAD deployment, Song said that this is unlikely as Bohai is China's usual weapons testing ground, unlike the South and East China Seas where experiments could be difficult as the waters contain various nations' Exclusive Economic Zones and international waters.

A statement from the Information Bureau of China's Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday confirmed that Chinese rocket forces tested a new type of missile in the Bohai Sea.

The statement said the test was conducted in accordance with the annual training plan to "raise the operational capability of the armed forces and effectively respond to threats to national security," the statement said.

"The test achieved the expected result," said the statement, without disclosing its exact date.
 
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China’s missile tests in Bohai ‘aimed at THAAD’

Analysts say ‘rare high-profile announcement of test’ was a response to last month’s deployment of US-built anti-missile system in South Korea

By Minnie Chan - SCMP
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 10 May, 2017, 11:16am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 10 May, 2017, 11:27pm

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Chinese rocket forces tested a new type of missile aimed at the country’s waters west of the Korean peninsula, the defence ministry announced in a rare public statement.

The statement did not say what missile was tested or when the launch took place but the announcement was likely aimed at South Korea and the United States, observers said.

South Korea’s President Moon would visit North under ‘right circumstances’, will talk THAAD with US and China

The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force conducted a test of a new type of missile somewhere in Bohai [Sea] in recent days, and achieved desired results,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

It said the test was designed to boost the military’s capacity to fight threats to national security.

Military analysts said the “rare high-profile announcement of the missile test” was a response to the deployment of the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea. The announcement comes after defence ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said last month that China would conduct live-fire drills and test new weapons to safeguard its security in response to the THAAD roll-out.

The US military began installing the system’s first components in South Korea late last month after nuclear-armed North Korea launched four missiles which it said was part of training for a strike on US bases in Japan.

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Hong Kong-based military analyst Liang Guoliang said the Chinese missile might have been launched from the mainland’s northwest, probably in Xinjiang or Gansu provinces, with the warhead landing in the Bohai Sea.

The missile might be launched from the northwest to the east by the Rocket Force, with a range of 2,000km or above. It was likely the advanced intermediate-range DF-26B, a modified version of the DF-26,” Liang said.

Holiday hush as Chinese tourists shun South Korean resort island amid THAAD missile shield row

Given the landing area, the test is obviously aimed at THAAD in South Korea.

The DF-26B is the new generation of Dongfeng series missiles.

Zhou Chenming, from the Knowfar Institute for Strategic and Defence Studies, a Chinese think tank, said: “The test might involve variants of new missile types, including the DF-21, DF-26 and other types of Dongfeng series missiles.

Zhou said the Bohai Sea had been the landing site for all sea target missile tests for several years, but this time “was quite high profile” as the defence ministry announced it. “Missile tests near the East Sea could cause deterrence to some countries,” Zhou said.

China reaches out to new South Korean leader amid tensions with North Korea and the US

Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong said the test might also be aimed at Washington, which has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

The test missile might be a new modified DF-26A anti-ship missile launched from a marine weapons testing ground in southern Liaoning,” Wong said.

The US the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to the Korean peninsula to conduct naval drills with the South Korean navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force last month. Another carrier, the Ronald Reagan, would join the carrier group late this month, according to a report from the Nikkei Asian Review.


This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as:
CHINA missile test ‘aimed at thaad’
 
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