"China carried out a flight test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile last month that will carry multiple nuclear warheads capable of targeting most of the United States, according to American defense officials. The launch in late November was the first time the Chinese military flight tested the Julong-3, or JL-3 missile that will be deployed with the next generation of ballistic missile submarines * * * The test was closely monitored by US intelligence agencies that detected the launch with missile warning satellites. No additional details of the flight test could be learned. Pentagon spokesmen declined to comment.
"China's missile force announced, without elaborating, that five missile flight tests were conducted between Nov 20 and 23. Also, the Liaoning Maritime Safety Administration announced a sea closure zone for "military exercises" in the area surrounding the location near Dalian, China, where the new missile is being developed. The closure took place Nov 22.
"Disclosure of the flight test followed internet reports last year that China deployed a Type-032 auxiliary submarine that is the likely test bed for JL-3 launches. Private sector China analysts [based in US] who examined photos of the Type-032, now located at a port on the Bohai Sea in northeast China, say the submarine's tower contains missile launch tubes that appear to have been enlarged for JL-3 tests. The Type-032 was used in the past for tests of the shorter-range JL-2 missile, a variant of the DF-31 land-based missile.
Note:
(a) 美媒指解放军成功潜射巨浪3洲际弹道导弹. 法广, Dec 20, 2018.
This report (whose content I do not read) has a wrong title. Bill Gertz's above report only says "launch" -- "success" is nowhere to be found. Bill Gertz before reported China's test in mid-course interception of ballistic missile and hypersonic projectile similar to Boeing X-51 Waverider, none of which reported success.If Chna had made progress, I surmise that it would have done more tests (but has not).
(b) " 'The extent and full nature of the work conducted is unclear but the imagery is consistent with a modification to the ballistic-missile launch tube or tubes contained within the sail,' wrote Joseph Dempsey and Henry Boyd in the Military Balance Blog of the International Institute of Strategic Studies. 'Logically, this would suggest plans for the integration of a larger—or at least taller—new ejection system and SLBM.' Dempsey and Boyd stated in August 2017 that the missile testing submarine was moved in February 2017 from its homeport in Xiaopingdao to Dalian Liaoning shipyard, which in the past was the location of China's submarine missile development programs. The modification of the Type-032 'indicates progress towards a long-expected follow-on SLBM design, potentially designated "JL-3," ' they said."
Gertz should have made clear that all (not just one sentence with "August 2017") quotations above comes from, and hence is old news
Joseph Dempsey and Henry Boyd, Beyond JL-2: China's Development of a Successor SLBM Continues. (in the Military Balance Blog"). International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Aug 7, 2017. https://www.iiss.org/blogs/milit ... hina-successor-slbm
(c) "A report that same month in the China state-run Keji Ribao, a publication of the State Science and Technology Commission, stated that the existence of JL-3 had not been confirmed by Chinese authorities. The report stated that Chinese military experts believe the solid-fueled JL-3 will use technologies from the new DF-41 land-based intercontinental missile, and that it will be comparable to the Navy's Trident II D-5 and new Russian Bulava submarine-launched missiles."