(Washington, D.C.) The Commander of the U.S. military’s nuclear weapons arsenal is expressing serious concerns about the growing weapons threat presented by China’s massive military expansion.
“We are witnessing a strategic breakout by China including explosive growth in modernization in nuclear and conventional forces which can be described as breathtaking. It does not matter why China continues to grow and modernize. They are building the capability to execute any nuclear employment strategy. China is unconstrained by treaties. Business as usual will not work,” Adm. Charles Richard, Commander. U.S. Strategic Command, told an audience as the 2021 Space and Missile Defense Symposium, Huntsville Ala.
Richard went on to cite a handful of specific Chinese weapons systems which continue to both expand and cause significant concern. China has road-mobile ICBM launcher able to launch missiles armed with multiple reentry vehicles, DF-26 missiles, Jin-class nuclear armed ballistic missile submarines armed with new, long-range JL-3 missiles and its H-6 nuclear-armed bomber. China is also rapidly increasing its arsenal of nuclear weapons and improving its nuclear capacity.
There are additional Chinese capacity variables which only compound U.S. concerns about the threat. China has a large and fast-growing number of nuclear weapons to include ICBMs, to include two nuclear missile fields in Western China, each with 120 missiles, Richard said.
Richard was clear that there are metrics and technological variables far more significant than sheer numbers when it comes to the actual size of a given country’s number of nuclear weapons.
“I caution about a comparison of stockpiles. A nation’s stockpile is a crude measure, as you need delivery systems and range as well,” Richard explained.
