China building over 100 ballistic missile silos: Report

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China has begun construction of over 100 new silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles in a desert near the country’s northwestern city of Yumen, signalling a major expansion of its nuclear capabilities, a leading American daily has reported citing satellite imagery. The silo construction project could provide China — which celebrated its 100th anniversary on Thursday at the Tiananmen Square — a means of concealing its nuclear weapons.

The 119 nearly identical construction sites, that could potentially house powerful weapons capable of reaching the American mainland, are similar to those seen at existing launch facilities for China’s arsenal of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, the report said.

It said that commercial satellite images obtained by researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California show work underway at scores of sites across a grid covering hundreds of square miles of arid terrain in Gansu province, some 2,100 km from Beijing. The acquisition of over 100 new missile silos, if completed, would represent a historic shift for China, a country that is believed to possess a stockpile of 250 to 350 nuclear weapons, the report said.