[Paul Ross]

Somehow I don't think the Chinese PLA has a "Ministry of Silly Walks".

What is likely very sad is that while our nuclear capabilities expire...the PLA may have a very capable complement of nuclear physicists and technicians assembled. Ready to swiftly move to deploy far more deliverable nuclear devices than the FAS [Federation of American Scientists] or BAT [Bulletin of Atomic Scientists] or UCS [Union of Concerned Scientists] folks believe they could do.

And they are simply patiently waiting us out to see our nuclear armaments capability implode.

It doesn't help that they likely have a leg up, avoiding all the blind alleys of R&D that we spent over $50 billion of research working around. Their espionage here has been ridiculously successful at the U.S. National Labs.

The copied W-88 is one example. And they already have, apparently, shown the capacity to do neutron warheads which they even admitted to in 2002.

Some purported satellite photos of one of their airburst tests of a 1Kt device is depicted below:

I fear that we will know about the error of our ways with China only when it is indeed too late.

[operation clinton cleanup]

The last such missile, the Peacekeeper, was designed in the 1970s.

and that ended up being a watered down version of the MX placed in silos. Russia has mobile ICBM's, why can't we?

[GOP_1900AD]

They will turn them out like sausages. In fact, maybe they already are turning them out.

[Myrddin]

I recall seeing those two final pictures circulating around my floor. The satellite photo analysis people brought them down for for friendly advice.

I was working in the bunker at SHAPE when the Chinese did the 1 MT underground test. The guys playing darts in the back of the room suddenly took a real keen interest in some other tasks. It dawned on me that I was working inside a high value, highly fortified target.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Herakles]

"I fear that we will know about the error of our ways with China only when it is indeed too late."

I got news for you; from time to time I hang out at the Nuclear Engineering department at a local university, and we are training everyone's nukes. I've been successful in persuading a couple Chinese to stay in the US, hoping that would be a win win for us (I try to do my part).

But at the same time I can't fault the Universities. In an attempt to prevent going out of business after the government destroyed the commercial nuke industry, the nuke departments had to get warm bodies to fill the seats from anywhere. US students did not want any part of that industry.

By the way, do you remember those nukes Pakistan and India developed?

There are two sayings in my business;

1. Pay me now or pay me later.

2. What goes around comes around.

The time is now later and it is coming around.