07 March 2008
Chinese Nuclear Arsenal Increased by a Third Since 2006, Pentagon Report Indicates » FAS Strategic Security Blog
Since 2006, the Chinese nuclear arsenal has increased by 1/3.
When one considers the strategic needs of China, they would generally be geared towards protecting supply lanes for oil and other strategic materials, but we see a buildup here that is largely ICBMs and nuclear cruise missiles, which are useless in this scenario:
In fact, the only realistic use for these weapons is to deter the US from using their weapons as a threat to forestall specific Chinese actions **cough** Taiwan **cough**.
Were this simply a modernization, I don't think that you would see an increase in warheads, because the older liquid fueled missiles would be decommissioned, and they have not been.
When one considers the strategic needs of China, they would generally be geared towards protecting supply lanes for oil and other strategic materials, but we see a buildup here that is largely ICBMs and nuclear cruise missiles, which are useless in this scenario:
In fact, the only realistic use for these weapons is to deter the US from using their weapons as a threat to forestall specific Chinese actions **cough** Taiwan **cough**.
Were this simply a modernization, I don't think that you would see an increase in warheads, because the older liquid fueled missiles would be decommissioned, and they have not been.
Labels:
China
,
Military
,
Nuclear Weapons
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