Chinese Missiles

China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) operates the world's largest land-based missile arsenal, fielding approximately 900 short-range ballistic missiles, 1,300 medium-range ballistic missiles, 500 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, and around 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), along with 400 ground-launched cruise missiles. Its SRBMs (e.g., DF-11, DF-15, DF-16) enable strikes across the Taiwan Strait, while MRBMs and IRBMs like DF-21 and DF-26 target U.S. bases and naval groups throughout the Indo-Pacific, supporting an anti-access/area-denial posture.

China leads in fielding hypersonic systems, including the DF-17 MRBM carrying a DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle with a range of ~2,000 km and speeds between Mach 5–10. These systems pose new challenges to U.S. missile defenses, adding speed, maneuverability, and unpredictability to their interception profiles. China's ICBM capability includes road-mobile and silo-based solid-fuel systems: DF-31 variants and DF-41. PLARF's expanding ICBM infrastructure now includes hundreds of new silos, reflecting Chinese policy to triple or quadruple its nuclear warhead count—estimated at ~600 currently.

China's missile modernization is characterized by massive scale, diversified basing (road-mobile, rail-mobile, silos, caves, sea-based), and rapid production facilitated by agencies like CALT and CASC. Strategic emphasis remains on denying U.S. regional access via large missile salvoes, all built to overwhelm and degrade defense layers.