DF15's are great but my biggest concern is Japan-as long as TW is not reunited she still has the victory from 1895 JiaWu war and can use TW as a springboard to even attack China later-I know-far fetched but I don't underestimate Japan's dark heart against us.A DF series IRBM's must be wielded immediately to warn Tokyo off.
China IRBM/SRBM (and non-ICBM/SLBM) thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
With a 1000-kilometer range, DF-16s could only meaningfully reach as far as Kyushu and (western end of) Chugoku regions, i.e. Sasebo - and that's by sticking close to the shoreline around the Yangtze delta and the Shandong peninsular. Even by putting DF-16 TELs within northeastern China, that would only cover as far as Chitose.
To target all of Kure, Maizuru, Yokota, Atsugi, Yokosuka and Misawa at once would - at the very least - require DF-21s stationed in northeastern China.
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Yes, pretty much all SRBMs in the PLARF are based in the South facing Taiwan.
Theoretically, the closest and most efficient location for firepower strike towards Japan is right on the China-Russia-North Korea Tri-Junction, where all Japanese main islands are all roughly equally at ~1200km.
Map for clarity:
To be honest, I think this range is more suitable for cruise missiles than ballistic missiles. If the PLARF deploys CJ/DF-10/10A/100 batteries in Northeast China, then my opinion might be more validated.
Currently, to my knowledge, "credible" sources indicate there's a DF-17 unit in Tonghua, facing Japan. I think its a reasonable assumption that this unit is focused towards Japan, or more accurately, US bases in Japan. There's a DF-26 unit in Dalian, but its range is overkill for Japan. There's a DF-21D(Upgrading) and a DF-100 unit in Jinan, but they can only really reach portions of southern Japan from the Shandong Peninsula, plus it's really awkward because they'd have to overfly South Korea.
Of course, there's more recent info with updates to the PLARF, but I wanted to use an "almost certain" source.
Map for clarity:
They have moved to Haicheng if you are referring to 654 Brigade. And actually they are on my high priority list for potential DF-27 brigade.
I was playing with numbers and I think 4900 km is the likely range of the DF-26 with a standard HE warhead. 4900 km is enough for hitting Diego Garcia from Yunnan without overflying India, hitting Guam and even Wake Island from Zhejiang, hitting bases around Darwin, Australia from Guangdong without overflying anything important, and a lot of important bases in Alaska from Heilongjiang. I think limiting the range at 4000 km (as Wiki tells) and losing the capability to hit these places this closely would be unreasonable.
antiterror13
Brigadier
What made you think that? do you think DF-26 is not sufficient? what the target for DF-27 from Dalian in your mind
Because DF-27 would be an overkill if you put them in anywhere in China except for Northeast.
There is only ocean and more ocean in the middle of nowhere in Pacific within the extended range once DF-26 upgrading to DF-27. Or they could be put in Xinjiang to deter against countries in the Europe but what is the purpose of it since Europe is not particularly a concern for China except for their shallow rhetoric.
Primary target for DF-27 (personally) should be a conventional attack against Sheymal and Clear Early Warning radar stations as well as hedge against GBI or NGI at Fort Greely. It only needs 6,500 km to reach these target and HGV is a great asset to counter against EWS. So theoretically!!! it could be used as a maximalist demonstration attack without crossing nuclear threshold to begin a full out nuclear war.
But I find hard to understand the necessity of DF-27. For me, it is either "do it or not" option on attacking your adversaries' mainland, no need to destroy EWS to demonstrate your capability. Or it could be simply PLARF wants to have a tool to hold movable asset at risk anywhere in the world by employing HGV on IRBM or even ICBM.
antiterror13
Brigadier
I always thought about the DF-27 as a weapon intended for distant large US bases. Hawaii, Midway Islands, bases in South of Australia, etc. Other than that, it can serve as a really potent tool for taking out the hardest defended assets in Japan and Guam because of its capability to reach 2000+ km using a solely atmospheric trajectory. As far as we saw from the leaks, there is an anti-ship version. It would be useful in that role too.
We have to be careful with the DF-27's (and all HGVs') range. The sticker number is a straight line shot; the actual range in combat will be substantially less because these vehicles will be manoeuvring and taking indirect paths to their targets. Not only is such a path longer than a straight line (really geodesic), but the vehicle will lose energy in the manoeuvre due to drag.