Hi everyone
Researching the internet for possible discussions revolving around the possibility that China has been dramatically raising its stockpile of longe-range nuclear ICBMs, I repeatedly came across the so-called "Great Wall Project".
On this site, is sais the following:
"Early 1995, China's media reported that the “Great Wall Project ” for China's strategic missile force was finally completed after ten years of construction in the Tai-Hang Mountain Range between Hebei and Shanxi provinces. According to the news reports, "tens of thousands" of Army engineers spent over 10 years there digging tunnels. According to some reports, this facility enables DF-4 and DF-5 missiles to be stored and mobilised through underground tunnels to increase their survivability. The 804th brigade is most likely to be associated to this facility considering its location."
Originally, I think the claim was made by Yang Zheng (university of singapore) in 1996:
"An anonymous poster ([email protected]) sent an internal document of the Chinese Defense Ministry to the Hong Kong magazine The Trend (Dong Xiang). This document reveals that China at present has a total of 2,350 nuclear warheads. This number i s about 8 times larger than the 300 generally cited in the Western media. Among the 2,350 warheads are about 550 tactical nukes and 1,800 strategic nukes. The document also reveals that the annual production of warheads was about 110-120 i n the 1980's and about 140-150 at present. (...)
China knows that the silos can be easily located by enemy satellites and that China's early-warning systems are inadequate; the launch-on-warning could be very dangerous (despite the popular belief in the newsgroups, all China's liquid-fueled SSMs use the same storable propellants as in SS-18). China recognizes that silo-hardening is just a losing battle and its nuclear submarine technology is generations behind that of US and Russia.
So China avoids the very vulnerable silo-based deployment of strategic ballistic missiles and instead hides her ICBMs in underground tunnels and caves dug in deep canyons and mountains. Those missiles are prepared inside the caves and moved outside to la unch. Command-and-Control will be much easier to maintain for this kind of deployment.
Early 1995, China's media reported that a Great Wall project for China's strategic missile force was completed after 10 years of construction in a "famous" mountain range in North China. Look at the topographic maps and read the news reports caref ully, it can be deduced that the underground tunnel network is in the famous Tai-Hai Mountain Range between Hebei and Shanxi provinces. According to the news reports, "tens of thousands" of Army engineers spent over 10 years there digging tunnels.
Normally, a company of soldiers (about 100 men) can dig about 100 meters of tunnel per month (based on the news reports about railroad tunnel construction) without using any advanced tunnel drilling machinery. So the "tens of thousands" of Army engineers (= hundreds of companies) over the 10-year period would have constructed an underground tunnel network of thousands of kilometers inside the Tai-Hei Mountain Range to hide some of China's strategic missiles. I guess it was called the "Great Wall" projec t not without a reason for the Great Wall is at least 5,000 kilometers long."
Elsewhere, some people violently contest the existence of official Chinese documents with regards to the "Great Wall Project:
"Bachelor of Mathematics, Masters of Digital Communications, 17 years as a Combat Engineer, earning the rank as Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers. Do you want to keep matching creditenitals?
There is NO official document about the Great Wall project. The ONLY reference is from an essay by a Singapore University professor. I have been watching the PLA for over 12 years. How long have you've been watching. (...)
Again, there is NO Official documentation concerning the Great Wall. We looked. We've requested it. Some, like Colonels Ken Allen and Denis Blasko who got direct personal contacts within the PLA never even got an acknowledgement that such a document, never mind the project, even existed. Colonel Denis Blasko was the American Military Attache in Beijing and to this day, his contacts don't even know what the Great Wall is."
What is fact, what fiction? Does anybody have more precise information? What about the claims about the number of nuclear warheads?
Thanks for your infos!
Andrew
Researching the internet for possible discussions revolving around the possibility that China has been dramatically raising its stockpile of longe-range nuclear ICBMs, I repeatedly came across the so-called "Great Wall Project".
On this site, is sais the following:
"Early 1995, China's media reported that the “Great Wall Project ” for China's strategic missile force was finally completed after ten years of construction in the Tai-Hang Mountain Range between Hebei and Shanxi provinces. According to the news reports, "tens of thousands" of Army engineers spent over 10 years there digging tunnels. According to some reports, this facility enables DF-4 and DF-5 missiles to be stored and mobilised through underground tunnels to increase their survivability. The 804th brigade is most likely to be associated to this facility considering its location."
Originally, I think the claim was made by Yang Zheng (university of singapore) in 1996:
"An anonymous poster ([email protected]) sent an internal document of the Chinese Defense Ministry to the Hong Kong magazine The Trend (Dong Xiang). This document reveals that China at present has a total of 2,350 nuclear warheads. This number i s about 8 times larger than the 300 generally cited in the Western media. Among the 2,350 warheads are about 550 tactical nukes and 1,800 strategic nukes. The document also reveals that the annual production of warheads was about 110-120 i n the 1980's and about 140-150 at present. (...)
China knows that the silos can be easily located by enemy satellites and that China's early-warning systems are inadequate; the launch-on-warning could be very dangerous (despite the popular belief in the newsgroups, all China's liquid-fueled SSMs use the same storable propellants as in SS-18). China recognizes that silo-hardening is just a losing battle and its nuclear submarine technology is generations behind that of US and Russia.
So China avoids the very vulnerable silo-based deployment of strategic ballistic missiles and instead hides her ICBMs in underground tunnels and caves dug in deep canyons and mountains. Those missiles are prepared inside the caves and moved outside to la unch. Command-and-Control will be much easier to maintain for this kind of deployment.
Early 1995, China's media reported that a Great Wall project for China's strategic missile force was completed after 10 years of construction in a "famous" mountain range in North China. Look at the topographic maps and read the news reports caref ully, it can be deduced that the underground tunnel network is in the famous Tai-Hai Mountain Range between Hebei and Shanxi provinces. According to the news reports, "tens of thousands" of Army engineers spent over 10 years there digging tunnels.
Normally, a company of soldiers (about 100 men) can dig about 100 meters of tunnel per month (based on the news reports about railroad tunnel construction) without using any advanced tunnel drilling machinery. So the "tens of thousands" of Army engineers (= hundreds of companies) over the 10-year period would have constructed an underground tunnel network of thousands of kilometers inside the Tai-Hei Mountain Range to hide some of China's strategic missiles. I guess it was called the "Great Wall" projec t not without a reason for the Great Wall is at least 5,000 kilometers long."
Elsewhere, some people violently contest the existence of official Chinese documents with regards to the "Great Wall Project:
"Bachelor of Mathematics, Masters of Digital Communications, 17 years as a Combat Engineer, earning the rank as Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers. Do you want to keep matching creditenitals?
There is NO official document about the Great Wall project. The ONLY reference is from an essay by a Singapore University professor. I have been watching the PLA for over 12 years. How long have you've been watching. (...)
Again, there is NO Official documentation concerning the Great Wall. We looked. We've requested it. Some, like Colonels Ken Allen and Denis Blasko who got direct personal contacts within the PLA never even got an acknowledgement that such a document, never mind the project, even existed. Colonel Denis Blasko was the American Military Attache in Beijing and to this day, his contacts don't even know what the Great Wall is."
What is fact, what fiction? Does anybody have more precise information? What about the claims about the number of nuclear warheads?
Thanks for your infos!
Andrew
