It was hardly a subtle attempt to project power. China showed off air-, sea- and land-launched nuclear weapons in its parade on Wednesday, a triad intended to demonstrate that Beijing’s long-term aspiration is to match US military might.
Also on display were large underwater torpedo-like drones, intended to threaten western warships, as well as anti-drone lasers and four-legged “robot wolves”, all designed to be noticed, regardless of their actual military effectiveness.
Though China last fought a war in 1979 – a month-long conflict with Vietnam – it has been pursuing a sweeping military modernisation for a generation, increasing its defence budget by 13 times in dollar terms since the mid-1990s, while it threatens independent Taiwan with drills nearby.
At the heart of the parade was the nuclear formation, a deliberately ominous collection of missile launchers in batches of four on vast trucks, with easily visible designations written in the Roman alphabet to aid western observers.
China’s Xinhua news agency said it was the first time Beijing had presented its nuclear triad, weapons it said were “China’s strategic ‘ace’ power to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and nation’s dignity”.
Land-based DF-61 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images
They included four new DF-61 intercontinental nuclear ballistic missiles, each carried on 16 wheel trucks. It was unclear if they were armed. These were the “main surprise” for western analysts, according to Hans Kristensen, of the Federation of American Scientists.
The newly presented missile’s range was roughly estimated at 7,500 miles based on its predecessor, the DL-41 – enough to reach Washington from Beijing. It is one of eight or nine Chinese ballistic missiles with an intercontinental range, raising questions of overkill. “How many ways do they have to be able to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile to deter?” Kristensen said.
Trundling along with it were new JL-3 ballistics for China’s six Jin-class submarines with a range of 6,200 miles or more. And, to complete the triad, China’s first-ever air-launched nuclear weapon, the JL-1, meaning Beijing joins a nuclear club composed of the US, Russia, India and probably Israel.
China’s JL-3 submarine-launched ICBMs alongside the land-based DF-61s. Photograph: VCG/Getty ImagesThe air-launched JL-1 long-range missile on parade in Beijing. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images
China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other country’s: it has an estimated 600 warheads, which is increasing at a rate of 100 a year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Its goal is to reach 1,500 by 2035, according to Washington, though even at that point Beijing’s arsenal would be smaller than that of the US or Russia, both of which have more than 5,000 warheads in their stocks. However, such is the destructive power of nuclear weapons that a handful of warheads could kill hundreds of thousands, or more.
Other novel weapons shown off included two models of extra-large underwater drones, measuring 18 to 20 metres, including the AJX002, carried on specially elongated eight-wheeled trucks, part of a strategic weapons programme.
Their size means they are vastly different to the small sea drones that Ukraine has used in swarms to knock out vessels in Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and their capabilities are less than clear. But the intention is to pose a threat, and to be seen to be posing a threat, to the traditional US dominance of the Pacific.
Two types of laser air defence weapons were displayed, one for ships and one based on land, a cheaper means of fending off drones that western militaries are already hoping to use. Britain plans to fit four warships with a DragonFire laser from 2027, to better protect the vessels from drones used by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Ship-based laser weapons in the parade. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
A handful of spindly four-legged land drones called robot wolves also attracted attention. However, if they could march, they were not allowed to, and instead were mounted on the back of other moving vehicles.
At a glance they appeared no more sophisticated than the growing number of land drones appearing on the battlefields of Ukraine, as remotely controlled fighters or trucks to rescue the wounded, though China’s industrial capacity is such that a viable product could probably be made in vast numbers and possibly supplied to Russia.
