WW3 Buildup: China Practices For War With US – Tests Preemptive Missile Strike Against US
The increasing tension between the
United States and China has been no secret in recent years, but now
satellite evidence appears to indicate that China is preparing for a
crippling, preemptive missile strike in the Pacific.
The
evidence gleaned from Chinese rocket battery training grounds is easy
to miss at first, until the pattern emerges from the targets.
Across
numerous training grounds, the rocket targets are clearly designed to
imitate the shape and dimensions of United States military targets.
Thomas Shugart describes in his report War on the Rocks
how the training areas are configured to replicate US bases, aircraft
carriers, airstrips and refueling stations with an eerie precision.
The
outlines of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are arrayed in a rocky
desert in the same pattern, as their US Navy counterparts lie at anchor
in port.
An electrical substation the same
size and shape as that outside a US Naval base. The attention to detail
is such that junk aircraft are positioned on the target runways in
mirror images of their US counterparts.
The Chinese military has made headlines in recent
years with its development of anti-carrier missile systems designed to
neutralize America's naval superiority and Taiwan has lived for decades
under the threat of a barrage of missiles from the mainland should war
ever break out.
China's missile command is
comprised of approximately 100,000 personnel and the range of its
rocket-based weapon systems now includes all of the US bases in the
region.
Chinese military doctrine, Shugart's report explains, places emphasis on surprise and preemptive strikes.
The
concept of "active defense" is one that focuses on striking massively
at the enemy's ability to wage war and launch attacks, thus defending
not simply in a reactive way against individual attacks on Chinese soil
but reaching far out to eliminate threats before they can approach.
A
2007 RAND study describes the doctrine that redefines "first strike" in
a way that allows China to launch first in defense, "This paradox is
explained by defining the enemy's first strike as 'any military
activities conducted by the enemy aimed at breaking up China
territorially and violating its sovereignty'...and thereby rendered the
equivalent of a 'strategic first shot.'"
Therefore, the perceived threat of invasion by China grants it the right to launch its strategic rocket attack.
In
February of this year, a new precision, medium-range Chinese ballistic
missile was seen at the Rocket Force testing grounds. The DF-16 rocket,
capable of hitting both US and Japanese bases, was shown in a video
uploaded to the Defense Ministry's website.
Aboard
their mobile launcher, the new missiles could be seen readying to
launch at their mock-US targets during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The DF-16 rocket is a relatively new weapon system with
its first sighting in 2015. Experts believe its range to be around 620
miles and it replaces the older DF-11. The DF-16 boasts both increased
range the ability to adjust at the end of its flight to evade
anti-missile systems.
From the numerous launch
sites that exist within China, the Rocket Forces are able to deliver a
powerful first-strike to US, Taiwanese and Japanese forces across the
region.
The United States, despite its clear
advantage in naval power, especially aircraft carriers, does not possess
an equivalent rocket system.
A 2015 RAND
study estimated that by 2017 China would be capable of putting in the
field 1,200 short-range ballistic missiles (600-800 km), 274
medium-range ballistic missiles (1,000-1,500+ km), an unknown number of
intermediate-range ballistic missiles (5,000 km) and 450-1,250 cruise
missile type rockets (1,500+ km).
The accuracy of the ballistic missiles is estimated to be within a few meters.
With
the Chinese doctrine of overwhelming preemptive strike and the massive
buildup of rocket assets, the increased training on replicas of US
military targets and US bases cannot be ignored.
For
now, the tests are only practice, but they demonstrate China's ability
effectively to counter any US military move to protect American allies
and American interests in the Asian Pacific, especially
troubling at a time when China has grown increasingly aggressive in asserting its control of territory.
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