China test-fired a DF-41 ICBM armed with a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle warhead (MIRV) for the first time in late July, according to an anonymous US official cited by Jane’s Defense Weekly.
The MIRV-armed DF-41 is thought to have been test-fired by PLA’s Second Artillery Corps on July 24 from the Wuzhai missile and space test center in Shandong province in eastern China.
The Chinese MIRV is believed to carry up to 10 nuclear warheads, each of which can independently target points anywhere within the United States. Its development poses a new degree of threat to US national security because the current US anti-missile missiles wouldn’t be able to intercept most of the warheads that would be released by a MIRV payload.
“The DF-41’s multiple warheads are expected to include special simulated warheads called ‘penetration aids’ that are designed to counter US missile defense sensors,” said Larry Wortzel, a member of the congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“The new missile bolsters China’s strategic forces, making them among the most diverse in the world, with a variety of short-, medium-, intermediate- and intercontinental-range missiles,” says an article by Bill Gertz published in the Washington Free Beacon on August 15.
The DF-41 uses a new bigger solid-fuel rocket than the one powering the DF-31 series of ICBMs. China had been conducting ground tests of the motor for a couple of years prior to the July test launch. The Second Artillery Corps, which is charged with operating China’s strategic missile systems, is currently taking steps to deploy the DF-41 into its operational inventory, according to Mark Stokes, executive director of the Project 2049 Institute.
Placing 32 DF-41 MIRV-tipped ICBMs into service would give China the ability to target every US city with a population of at least 50,000, according to Phillip Karber from Georgetown University.
