The 1980 DF-5 Test

[video=youtube_share;37nHdfZF2b0]http://youtu.be/37nHdfZF2b0[/video]

A good video I think except for the clueless animation sequence. Saw this yesterday and did on it, found a few things worth noting:

1. This deployment of Chinese navy and civilian ships beyond Chinese littorals was on a scale unprecedented since Zheng He's time. Must be bittersweet considering the vastly different circumstances.
2. I wonder if this is the first time Chinese sailors did underway replenishment operationally, if so, then this capability would have been developed due to the needs of China's nuclear weapon program.
3. A little-known 2nd missile was launched 3 days later, but its second stage shut-off was premature by 6.4s and fell 1400 km short of target, I wonder what was different in the 2nd missile and what its purposes were.
4. Really amazing the amount of effort China put into its strategic arsenal when the country was so weak economically. The Chinese sentiment seems to be that this approach was necessary to safeguard China's subsequent economic rise. In hindsight, I would agree considering the international political climate was becoming increasingly wary of nuclear proliferation. These days a HGV is enough to generates lots of flak.

EDIT: want to add that the animated trajectory at 1:35 is also inaccurate, flying over South Korea and Japan is probably a no-no even back in 1980, here's my Google Earth recreated path, it's about 9160 km:

What a "happy" world we (including our children & grand children) live in. Testing for possible IBM threatening launches across the Pacific Ocean, East China Sea, as the major players (countries) continue to be suspicious of each other's intentions. Playbacks of the past World Wars (albeit with their available weaponries then) when aggressive & domineering leaderships were around.

StopSquarkS said:

[video=youtube_share;37nHdfZF2b0]http://youtu.be/37nHdfZF2b0[/video]

A good video I think except for the clueless animation sequence. Saw this yesterday and did

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

on it, found a few things worth noting:

1. This deployment of Chinese navy and civilian ships beyond Chinese littorals was on a scale unprecedented since Zheng He's time. Must be bittersweet considering the vastly different circumstances.
2. I wonder if this is the first time Chinese sailors did underway replenishment operationally, if so, then this capability would have been developed due to the needs of China's nuclear weapon program.
3. A little-known 2nd missile was launched 3 days later, but its second stage shut-off was premature by 6.4s and fell 1400 km short of target, I wonder what was different in the 2nd missile and what its purposes were.
4. Really amazing the amount of effort China put into its strategic arsenal when the country was so weak economically. The Chinese sentiment seems to be that this approach was necessary to safeguard China's subsequent economic rise. In hindsight, I would agree considering the international political climate was becoming increasingly wary of nuclear proliferation. These days a HGV is enough to generates lots of flak.

EDIT: want to add that the animated trajectory at 1:35 is also inaccurate, flying over South Korea and Japan is probably a no-no even back in 1980, here's my Google Earth recreated path, it's about 9160 km:

Click to expand...

StopSquarkS said:

A good video I think except for the clueless animation sequence. Saw this yesterday and did

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

on it, found a few things worth noting:

Click to expand...

Very good video. It's still hard to find on Youtube good videos about Chinese military (not to mention videos with english subtitles).

1. Really amazing the amount of effort China put into its strategic arsenal when the country was so weak economically. The Chinese sentiment seems to be that this approach was necessary to safeguard China's subsequent economic rise. In hindsight, I would agree considering the international political climate was becoming increasingly wary of nuclear proliferation. These days a HGV is enough to generates lots of flak.

Click to expand...

Indeed. According to China spent 1/3 of its national Capital investment on Dispersal and Tunneling between 1966-1979. I don't know how accurate this figure is but there is no question that China spent a lot of money on it's strategic arsenal.
For country like China it's imposible to be strong economically and weak militarly. Last time when China was weak militarly ended with Opium Wars. China was very wise to first build strong nuclear forces and then concentrate on economic rise.