China Has 3 Long-Range Nuclear Armed Ballistic Missiles Able to Hit California

Video Above: New Air Force “Sentinel” ICBM to Fire Off 2024 – Counter Future Threats

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) The Pentagon’s just published report on China cites three Nuclear Ballistic Missiles capable of hitting the US mainland directly from China. The report, called “Military and Security Development Regarding the People’s Republic of China,” specifies the range of China’s CSS4 Mod2 Mod3 as having an ability to reach 13,000km.

Two other nuclear missiles cited in the report can also reach the US from China, the DF-41 and CSS 10 Mod 2 able to reach 12,000km and 11,200km respectively. The distance between Beijing and Los Angeles is 10,084km, placing California within direct reach of all three of these Chinese nuclear missiles. China is also developing a precision nuclear strike capability with its DF-26 medium range anti-ship ballistic missile able to travel as far as 2,000 miles. Added to this threat circumstance, the PRC is also building new ground silo ICBM fields which will cumulatively contain as many as 300 silos, the Pentagon report says.

These are just a few of the factors likely to have influenced the Biden Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review.  The US refusal to embrace a “No First Use” nuclear declaratory policy in the recently published 2022 Nuclear Posture Review seems to make sense in light of the escalating global threat environment.

Nuclear Posture Review

While the text of the Nuclear Posture Review report is clear to emphasize that nuclear weapons exist as a necessity for “deterrence” purposes and not as an operational “attack” option persay, the document does not rule out the possibility in “extreme circumstances.”

“As long as nuclear weapons exist, the fundamental role of nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack on the United States, our Allies, and partners. The United States would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its Allies and partners,” the text of the NPR states.