What is known about the JL-3 ballistic missile, the work on which Beijing does not recognize
The United States is concerned about China's work on a promising ballistic missile for submarines JL-3, the range of which will allow China to reach the United States. This follows from a public report on missile threats to the United States. What is the new missile, the work on which Beijing, by the way, has not officially confirmed, in the material of the "Newspaper.Ru».
The JL-3 is a new submarine-launched ballistic missile of the People's Liberation Army Navy, which "increases the cost" of the US-China confrontation. So writes The South China Morning Post - the oldest English-language newspaper in Hong Kong.
This rocket is given quite a lot of space in the report of the US Air Force National Center for Aerospace Intelligence (NASIC), which states that
According to Chinese experts, such missiles are an important element of the PLA's response to a possible nuclear missile strike from a hypothetical enemy.
According to The South China Morning Post, three tests of the JL-3 have already been conducted, but so far China has not said anything about it. Moreover, Beijing has not officially confirmed that the missile is in principle under development.
However, Hong Kong journalists claim that this type of weapon will be integrated with the next-generation nuclear missile submarines of the PLA Navy as early as 2025.
According to the American report, the adoption of this SLBM is an additional threat to the United States, and the JL-3 is one of those missiles that can provide the PLA with the ability to fire at the continental United States.
According to experts, the new weapon will expand China's nuclear deterrence capabilities and provide Beijing with the opportunity to launch a retaliatory nuclear missile strike against a hypothetical enemy.
This is the conclusion that NASIC came to in its report. The Center also reported that China is developing, upgrading, and testing other ballistic missiles.
Moreover, the NASIC report claims that the number of warheads on Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of threatening the United States is expected to grow to 100 or more in the next five years. And this is compared to the 16 land-based DF-41 ICBM warheads that China currently has.
This conclusion is largely supported by the Federation of American Scientists. The FAS released its own report on January 19, stating that the JL-3 is a significant step forward over the JL-2 missile currently in service with the PLA Navy's naval strategic Nuclear Forces.
Malcolm Davies, a senior security expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China's development of advanced submarine-launched ballistic missiles gives it a "survivable retaliation capability" because the SNF can be deployed quickly, and it gives China a better chance of a retaliatory nuclear missile strike (SNR).
"The JL-3 must launch from the Bohai Sea to hit targets in the west west of the continental United States with warheads, or the submarine must be positioned closer to the second island chain to reach the east coast of the United States. It will be difficult for the Chinese to deploy their nuclear-powered missile submarines so far from their shores that they will not be detected by the anti-submarine defenses of a likely enemy, " Davis added.
Timothy Heath, a security specialist at the Rand Corporation strategic research Center, said that the JL-3 is a deterrent weapon that, together with the DF-41 ICBM, provides China with "an effective means of hitting the continental United States from extremely long distances, in addition, it increases the survivability of Chinese sea-based ballistic missiles."
"American assessments of the technical level and prospects for the deployment of the JL-3 SLBM, if they are correct, mean that we are waiting for a sharp increase in the combat capabilities of the Chinese strategic nuclear forces, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view," he told the newspaper.En " Vasily Kashin, Senior Researcher at the Center for Integrated European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics.
It is assumed that the first Chinese SAMBD is being created or has already been created in the South China Sea, and it is possible that the second one will appear in the Bohai Sea. The key problem was that the existing JL-2 missile from these SAMBD is not able to reach the continental territory of the United States, recalls Vasily Kashin.
According to the expert, this reduces the value of the first Chinese connection of six submarines of types 093 and 093A. The new one-type 096, which is supposed to carry more missiles (up to 24), and even equipped with longer-range missiles-solves this problem.
As a result, in the US-Chinese military confrontation, a new important dimension appears, connected with the struggle to ensure the combat stability of Chinese submarines, which are becoming an extremely important element of the Chinese strategic nuclear forces, concludes Vasily Kashin.
"From an operational and strategic point of view, China's desire to obtain a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a firing range of more than 10 thousand km is extremely clear. First, it will allow us to have combat service areas of the strategic naval nuclear forces as close to the Chinese coastline as possible. Secondly, the PLA Navy in this case will be much easier to ensure the operational stability of the Chinese Strategic Nuclear Forces, and this is one of the most important tasks of the fleet. And doing this near their shores is much easier. It is these two circumstances that underlie the development of a promising SLBM, " he explained to the newspaper.En " ex-Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Valery Zaparenko.
Mikhail Khodarenok