China may adopt the newest intercontinental missile this year

Almaty. March 30. Silkroadnews - This year China may adopt for service the newest intercontinental missile “Dongfeng-41”, TASS reports referring to the military magazine Kanwa Asian Defense printed in Hong Kong.

“As early as this year China can adopt for service its newest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) “DF-41” (the DF-41), capable of hitting any point in the United States,” the publication informed on Wednesday.

According to information, the missile test “entered the final stage”.

It is stated that “DF-41” will first be deployed to the advanced brigade of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) new Rocket Force based in Xinyang in Henan province. With operational range of up to 14.5 thousand km the missile would be able to strike the United States within half an hour by flying over the North Pole or slightly more if crossing the Pacific Ocean.

At the same time, it is not clear for the experts whether the new Chinese solid-fuel missile could break through the multi-layered missile defense system the United States deployed in the Asia-Pacific region. “DF-41 the longest range is about 15 thousand km, however, within just a few minutes of being launched it might be blocked by the US missile defense system on the island of Guam,” Professor He Qisong from Shanghai said.

It is reported that since last summer the DF-41 had been tested at the area of Taiyuan in northern Shanxi Province. According to US sources, on December 5, 2016, China made a successful start-up of this type of missiles from a railway-mounted mobile launcher.

Chief editor of Kanwa Asian Defence Andrei Chang said that the strike rate of the DF-41 would improve further after 2020 when China fully deploys its home-grown “Beidou” global navigation satellite system.