While President Barack Obama has made efforts to reduce our military’s capabilities, particularly in regards to missile defense, America’s rivals in China and around the globe are exploiting the obvious sign of weakness by greatly increasing their own military capabilities.
Specifically, Beijing recently announced that its powerful, new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, known as the DF-41, will be fully operational at some point this year, at which point it will be deployed into service.
The DF-41, which has been described as the world’s longest-range missile, is capable of traveling more than 9,000 miles and could reach mainland U.S.A. in about a half an hour, whether traveling over the North Pole or across the Pacific Ocean.
However, it remains unclear at this time if the missile would be capable of breaking through the weakening – though still rather stout – multi-layered missile defense shield.
“No one questions the longest range of the DF-41 is near 15,000km. But within just a few minutes of being launched, it might be blocked by the U.S.’s defense system at its Guam naval base,” stated Professor He Qisong, a defence policy specialist at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.
The solid fuel-boosted, mobile-launched ICBM has been test-fired at least five times over the past two years, and it is believed that the Chinese are working towards making the missiles capable of being launched from a railroad car, which would make it infinitely more difficult to detect before being fired.
Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that the Chinese are also making efforts to develop and launch their own set of navigational satellites to guide the missiles, expected to be complete by 2020, meaning they would no longer have to rely upon U.S.-owned and operated satellites.
Source: JewsNews