China’s ICBMs come to maturity
Recent Chinese-language media reports indicate that China’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) will be deployed by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) in early 2018.
The DF-41 (Dong Feng, or East Wind) ICBM is described in the Chinese press as a fourth-generation strategic missile capable of putting a nuclear warhead on target to a range of 12,000km with a 100m circular error probability (CEP). This would place it within range of Washington DC.
Press reports are comparing the DF-41 to sixth-generation missiles of the US silo-based LGM-30 Minuteman (200m CEP) and the Russian road-mobile RT-2PM2 (NATO name SS-27). Both
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