Perhabs not. Perhabs that new TEL has extra capacity for a future bigger ICBM not yet developed. It may be using DF-31A but with capacity to carry a bigger missile.
China Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Arms Thread
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Perhabs not. Perhabs that new TEL has extra capacity for a future bigger ICBM not yet developed. It may be using DF-31A but with capacity to carry a bigger missile.
nicky
Junior Member
Does anybody know locations of ballistic missile silos in China? I can see just one clear picture at Wuzhai. American, Russian and French facilities are all known and identified on Google Earth. Collections on 2nd Artillery Corps presented by O'Connor or Khristensen seems to be of little help. Any ideas?
broadsword
Brigadier
Zoom onto Fujian.
nicky
Junior Member
well, that much was already mentioned in my post. so nobody really knows?
what is known about missile silos in china at all? designer bureau? constructor agency? etc..
limited number - development failure due to "cultural revolution" effects on scientists/designers?
what is known about missile silos in china at all? designer bureau? constructor agency? etc..
limited number - development failure due to "cultural revolution" effects on scientists/designers?
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Nobody know the exact locations of the ballistic missiles in China, and nobody know the exact numbers of missiles China had... that is the main argument for decades in many many forums. Some say the number ranged at thousands, some say hundreds and others say only ten or twenty around.
Secondly... do you really really believe in the information given by google earth on the facilities of American, Russian and French nuclear facilities (by that I mean weapon facilities which include silos and not nuclear power plants)... really?
I mean, if those are so clear cut, then in times of war, all a nation needed to do was to launch an attack on those marked in Google Earth and you will effectively destroy all nuclear weapons capability of US, France and Russia... not too clever on these countries part, right?
Finally, nuclear weapon programs are top secret in China (as was in many countries) so there really is limited or no information in the net. Anything written is either totally off, or are just information that are too old to be of much uses.
schlieffen
New Member
Well, I don't know this Kristensen but I doubt he can read Chinese or have easy access to technical literature published in China, otherwise he won't be suspecting something immediately obvious in official publications. I don't blame him since most western analysts fail to meet these criteria.
The improvements of DF-31A over DF-31 include: replace NTPB propellant with N-15 (equivalent to NEPE-75 used on Trident), replace steel first stage casing with synthetic fiber, second and third stage with C-C composite, improved penetration aid, etc. IIRC the overall dimension of the missile did not change.
As to the source, I can offer a bibliography if one can read Chinese. Those are the books you can't find in a general bookstore. Research libraries in leading universities in China is a good place to search, but I can promise you that none are classified and you won't be asked for security clearance.
It's not like the USAF space command or major aerospace contractors such as LM and Boeing used to publish detailed specifications of their strategic missiles. The information available in the public domain today came from the hard work of generations of space historians, who spent decades digging in the mountains of declassified documents.
Unfortunately the same cannot be done on Chinese rockets. Apart from the obvious lack of interest, the main obstacle is always the language. The 'top secret' sensation is largely due to the inability of most western technology analysts/journalists/historians to master the Chinese language, which prevent them to do bibliographic research in a professional way. Search engines and machine translate does not give you quality research or quality journalism. It doesn't help when their Chinese acquaintances are often amateur blog writers or casual observers, mostly ill informed in serious rocket science and have very little real insight into the country's defence industry.
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escobar
Brigadier
Are those books talking about the rumored df-41 and the new MRBM??
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