Friday, August 02, 2013

China develops its version of ATACMS or a short legged Pershing.


via the Free Beacon.
The Chinese military has deployed a new advanced short-range missile known as the DF-12 that was revealed for the first time in photos posted on the Internet this week.
Disclosure of the missile follows publication of an Air Force National Space and Missile Intelligence Center (NASIC) report describing China as having the most aggressive ballistic missile development program in the world.
“China has the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world,” the report said, highlighting 13 variants of short-range ballistic missiles, including five new short-range missiles systems.
Beijing currently has deployed between 1,000 and 1,200 missiles opposite Taiwan, the island nation set up after China’s civil war that Beijing has vowed to use force to reunite with the mainland.
The DF-12 missile was disclosed in a post on a Chinese website Tuesday.
Read the entire article but you can add this as another log to toss on the fire of China's learning how to develop truly long ranged missiles.

The DF-12 itself doesn't excite.  Quite honestly I view it as an ATACMS or short legged Pershing.  Its not about where they are today.  Its where will they be in five years.  So we now have Stealth fighters using stolen F-35 tech (and the Program Manager isn't positive that the leaking has stopped), an aggressive ship building program, massive modernization of their conventional Army and Marine Corps, a unification of their Maritime Security Forces, a population that is being stoked with nationalist thinking and some very aggressive moves against almost every country in the region.

Yeah.

While they're doing that, we're planning on huge cuts in our own defense spending---while every other nation in the Pacific is increasing.

No one has fired a shot, yet right now it looks like China is winning.

2 comments :

  1. What kills me is China has thousands of conventional ballistic missiles but mention the possibility of the US building some of their own and everybody starts shitting themselves.

    Russia has Iskander (and others), India is developing the Shaurya and has many others, and the US? It has the little baby ATACMs and that's it.

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  2. China's economy has been slowing down for the last couple of years, they need double digit growth to sustain their development - if not their system will implode on itself. Yea, they've been building a couple wannabe stealth fighters and second rate navy using stolen technology - big deal. The biggest threat to china is china - I'm not worried.

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