"China Replaces Short-Range Missiles Targeting US with Medium-Range Ones"

Chinese President Xi Jinping is delivering a speech on the 6th during his visit to the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, which oversees Taiwan. [Image source=Yonhap News]

There is an analysis that China has been building a modern missile strategy capable of targeting allies such as the United States in preparation for a potential war in the Taiwan Strait.

On the 23rd, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) cited a report published by Decker Everless, a researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in the United States, stating that the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force has been extensively deploying the medium-range ballistic missile Dongfeng (東風·DF)-17 near Taiwan.

Based on publicly available satellite images, the report analyzed that the Rocket Force of the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command in southeastern China, facing Taiwan, is replacing short-range ballistic missiles with a range of less than 1,000 km with missiles that can fly farther.

This Rocket Force played a central role during the five-day live-fire exercises conducted by the Chinese military in August last year, in protest of then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

Kapil Kazal of Jane's Asia-Pacific, a military intelligence specialist firm, also revealed that the Chinese military is gradually replacing short-range missiles at bases near Taiwan with the DF-17. When equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), the DF-17 has a range of 1,800 to 2,500 km and is known to be harder to detect by radar than conventional weapons.

Kazal stated that the hypersonic glide vehicle combined with the DF-17 can reach speeds of Mach 5 to 10 (5 to 10 times the speed of sound) and can evade U.S. air defense systems such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and the Patriot missile system.

However, researcher Everless pointed out that while the DF-17 would likely be the first missile launched targeting Taiwan and allied air defense systems, it has the limitation of not being able to reach U.S. bases in Guam or other key U.S. naval forces.

He added that for this reason, it is observed that the Chinese military is producing a shockingly large number of DF-26 missiles. The DF-26, with a range of 3,000 to 5,741 km, can strike U.S. military bases in Guam and has earned the nickname "Guam killer."

Everless stated that this missile has been deployed to seven Rocket Force brigades in Anhui Province, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and other locations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.