Free Republic

Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time this week that Beijing’s nuclear submarines can attack American cities as a means to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific. On Monday, leading media outlets including China Central TV, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily ran identical, top-headlined reports about the “awesomeness” of the People's Liberation Army navy’s strategic submarine force. “This is the first time in 42 years since the establishment of our navy’s strategic submarine force that we reveal on such a large scale the secrets of our...

Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger last week highlighted significant flaws in the new START arms reduction treaty, including the fact that it allows Russia to load up nuclear weapons on its bombers and failed to address Moscow's growing arsenal of tactical nuclear arms. Schlesinger noted in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the treaty’s failure to limit tactical nuclear arms was akin to the Sherlock Holmes’ story “The Dog That Did Not Bark.” “While New START may be acceptable in the narrow context of strategic weapons, it also needs to be considered in a much larger context,” he...

The U.S. Air Force test program for its Minuteman III ICBMs has been interrupted by a "mechanical problem" that will delay the next test seven months. The missile, selected at random from those stored in Midwest silos, was brought to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, placed in a silo there, and readied for firing into the Pacific. But during the installation of the missile in the silo, a problem was encountered. The air force won't say what exactly the problems is, or if it is something common to other Minuteman missiles. This kind of testing is not as realistic...

China has followed a different path in developing strategic weapons. It hasn't. Although the technology was available from Russia, China has, instead, concentrated on creating more accurate, and cheaper, shorter range weapons. This appears to be in recognition of the fact that a war involving nuclear armed ICBMs would be a losing proposition, with no winners. This would be especially true against the United States. In effect, China has dropped out that arms race. With only a few dozen ICBMs, none of which can reach all of the United States, China sees most of the long range ballistic missiles it...

Russia plans to replace most of its older (Cold War era) ICBMs in the next five years. But all of these older missiles will not be retired until 2020. Currently, Russia has 538 ICBMs in service, 71 percent of them the most modern Topols (SS-25 and SS-27). Only 56 are the most modern, Topol-M design. About a dozen of these are the road-mobile versions, that avoid destruction in a first strike, by constantly moving around on the roads 200-300 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The 54 foot long transporter for these 46 ton missiles is a 16 wheel vehicle, using a...