China’s Missile Silos

China’s Missile Silos

Subject – IR

Context – Satellite images have revealed that China is building at least three missile silo fields in Yumen in Gansu province, near Hami in Xinjiang province, and at Hanggin Banner, Ordos City, in Inner Mongolia.

Concept –

• On completion of the ongoing work, China could have 250-270 new missile silos, more than 10 times the number it had maintained for several decades.
• Why is China building missile silos?
  • FIRST, some Chinese political scientists believe this could be China’s attempt to move towards a launch-on-warning (LOW) nuclear posture. LOW refers to a launch at an adversary on detection of an incoming missile before the adversary’s missile hits its target.
  • SECOND, it enables China to achieve its goal of increasing its nuclear warhead
  • The THIRD guess is that China could use these silos as decoys.