Hyperwarp
Captain
can anyone tell the reason of why china has so many ICBM projects (DF-5B, DF-31A, DF-31AG, DF-41)? Seems to me like a waste of resources. they should just pick DF-41 and dump the rest.
DF-5 series including DF-5B will be retired when DF-41 reaches maturity/adequate numbers. Until then those 20 DF-5 are critical. The reason the PLRF have both DF-31A and DF-31AG is because initially the off-road TEL was not available. Since 1999 only the road-mobile version was available (DF-31/31A). Only last year the fully off-road capable TEL for an ICBM (DF-31AG) was publicly displayed. Having DF-31/DF-41 combo is like a J-20/J-10 high-lo mix. Russians will have a similar arrangement with the future RS-28 supplimented by RT-2PM2 and RS-24. Even the US at one time had a LGM-30 and LGM-118 combo. So China have a mixture of DF-31/41 is not unusual. The DF-41 is probabaly a lot more expensive than the DF-31.