New missile showcased ahead of PLA’s anniversary

BEIJING — China has publicly unveiled a model of an advanced form of one of its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as the country’s military prepares to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) next month.

A model of the Dongfeng-31AG – an upgraded version of the DF-31A – was shown for the first time at an exhibition at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution in Beijing last week.

The new missile system is expected to share a similar estimated range of 11,000km with the DF-31A – enough to reach most locations within the continental United States and Europe – but will be more mobile thanks to its new carrier vehicle design, military experts said. The DF-31AG is based on a launch vehicle that can go off-road, while the DF-31A’s launching platform is limited to hard surfaced roads.

Macau-based military expert Antony Wong Dong said the new missile adopts technology used in intermediate-range missiles such as the DF-26, as well as the DF-41 ICBM. These missiles do not need a prepared launch site as their launch vehicles can move anywhere to fire their weapons.

“As such, the DF-31AG’s survival capability is greatly enhanced,” Mr Wong said.

Missiles with high mobility are seen as a greater strategic threat than those deployed in silos because they can be moved and hidden to avoid detection, making them harder to track down and target during a conflict.

Beijing-based military observer Zhou Chenming said that the DF-31AG may be able to carry single or multiple nuclear warheads, or a large single conventional warhead.

“From the way it looks, the DF-31AG’s canister is a bit bigger than that of the DF-31A. This might mean that it’s more powerful, or that it might be used to fire conventional as well as nuclear missiles,” Mr Zhou said.

China is on a path towards developing ballistic missiles which can carry nuclear or conventional warheads, Mr Zhou added.

“We’re not in the Cold War anymore; so nuclear missiles are no longer the mainstream,” he observed.

“We’ll still keep our nuclear strength, but we’ll use conventional warheads instead to deal with certain threats.”

The PLA Daily, the Chinese military’s official newspaper, said in May last year that the development of ground-to-ground missiles capable of both nuclear and conventional strike was “an inexorable trend”.

But Mr Wong disagreed.

He said the new DF-31AG appeared to be only capable of carrying a single warhead and talk of it carrying nuclear and conventional payloads was pure speculation.

“It shouldn’t overlap with the function of DF-41 and should serve a different purpose,” he said.

The US-based website the Washington Free Beacon reported three years ago that China had conducted the first test flight of what analysts suggested was a multi-warhead missile, based on the DF-31A, called the DF-31B.

The Chinese authorities have not commented on the report.

The unveiling of the DF-31AG came as it was revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping will be a special guest during the 90th anniversary of the PLA on August 1.

Military sources said that Mr Xi will make his first known visit to the Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base – Asia’s largest military training base – in Inner Mongolia.

While there he will observe drills involving cyber capabilities, special forces, and army aviation. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST