China building second nuclear missile base, say experts citing satellite imagery

The Chinese government is digging a new field of what appears to be 110 silos for launching nuclear missiles in the barren desert 1,200 miles west of the capital, Beijing. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) members  Matt Korda and Hans Kristensen on July 26, in a statement, cited the satellite images near Yumen in Gansu province. It said, “The second missile silo field is located 380 kilometres (240 miles) northwest of the Yumen field near the prefecture-level city of Hami in Eastern Xinjiang.”

The analysts have noted that the Hami missile silo field is in a much earlier stage of development than the Yumen site. As per the statement, the construction there began back in March 2021 in the southeastern corner of the complex and continues at a rapid pace. Since that time, FAS noted that several dome structures have been erected over at least 14 silos and soil cleared to prepare for the construction of 19 more silos. The experts have also determined, based on the “grid-like outline” that the entire complex will eventually include 110 silos. 

The Hami site was first spotted by Matt Korda, the Research Associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, using commercial satellite imagery. The greater resolution images of the site were eventually provided by ‘Planet’. The FAS said that the silos at Hami are positioned in an “almost perfect grid pattern, roughly three kilometres apart, with adjacent support facilities.” The construction at the second site is similar to the 120 silos at the Yumen site and around one dozen silos constructed at the Jilantai training area in Inner Mongolia.

FAS said, “These shelters are typically removed only after more sensitive construction underneath is completed. Just like the Yumen site, the Hami site spans an area of approximately 800 square kilometres.”

‘Most significant expansion’

According to experts the silo construction at both Yumen and Hami sites constitutes of “most significant expansion of the Chinese nuclear arsenal ever.” For several decades, Korda and Kristensen wrote that China has operated about 20 silos for liquid-fuel DF-5 ICBMs. They determined that with 120 silos under construction at the Yumen site, 110 at Hami, a dozen silos at Jilantai and the possibility of more silos being added in existing DF-5 deployment areas, the Chinese military appears to have approximately 250 silos under construction. This amounts to over 10 times the number of ICBM silos in operation to this day.

“The number of new Chinese silos under construction exceeds the number of silo-based ICBMs operated by Russia, and constitutes more than half of the size of the entire US ICBM force. The Chinese missile silo program constitutes the most extensive silo construction since the US and Soviet missile silo construction during the Cold War,” Korda and Kristensen wrote.

IMAGE: AP/fas.org