Bill Gertz, China Flight Tests New Multiple-Warhead Missile; DF-41 launch comes amid heightened tensions over S China Sea. Washington Free Beacon, Apr 19, 2016
http://freebeacon.com/national-s ... le-warhead-missile/
Quote:
(a) "Pentagon officials told the Free Beacon the flight test of the new road-mobile DF-41 missile took place Tuesday with two multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicles [dummies, see last paragraph of (b)], or MIRVs, that were monitored in flight by US military satellites and other regional sensors. Officials did not say where the test took place. * * *
"The latest flight test followed an earlier, rail-based canister ejection test of a DF-41 on Dec 5.
(b) "Disclosure of the DF-41 test follows a newsletter report [see next paragraph] last month that stated China is nearing deployment of the new ICBM.
"Kanwa Asian Defense reported last month that the new ICBM is in the final testing phase, and its expected deployment area will be near Xinyang in Henan province, in central China.
"From that location, the missile would be capable of striking the United States in around 30 minutes, either through a polar trajectory or over the Pacific.
"An earlier flight test of the DF-41, also with two dummy warheads, was carried out Aug 6.
My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of the lengthy report, which talks about things that are not important, such as S China Sea.
(b) As usual with Bill Gertz's reports, this one does not say whether China succeeded. Presumably China did, otherwise Mr Gertz will not say, "Kanwa Asian Defense reported last month that the [read: this] new ICBM is in the final testing phase."
(c) Kanwa Asian Defense 漢和防務評論 (based in Toronto, Canada; The "kan" and "wa" are both Chinese pronunciations, in Japan, of kanji 漢 and 和) |