China Builds Over 80 Launch Pads Near Hami Silos — Reuters China Satellite Images
china satellite images show China building more than 80 launch pads and three octagon-shaped installations near the Hami nuclear silo field in remote northwest China. The construction spreads across thousands of square kilometers of desert and appears aimed at expanding the infrastructure around China’s land-based nuclear forces.
Hami Silo Field Expansion
reviewed satellite images showing a sprawling web of launch pads, bunkers and communications nodes near isolated silos in Xinjiang. The images show more than 80 pads that may be used by China’s expanding fleet of mobile missile launchers and air-defense batteries, along with three octagon-shaped installations near the Hami field.
Three security analysts said the imagery also shows facilities that may serve electronic warfare, satellite communications and command operations. China’s defense ministry did not respond to questions about its nuclear program and the satellite imagery developments.
Alexander Neill On China
Alexander Neill, an adjunct fellow at Hawaii’s Pacific Forum think tank, said the infrastructure is being built on a grand scale and could significantly enhance and diversify China’s strategic nuclear deterrent. He said, “We can see this infrastructure is being built on a grand scale, covering thousands of square kilometers of desert beyond the silo fields,” and “we’re looking at a very considerable enhancement and diversification of China’s strategic nuclear deterrent.”
China’s nuclear missiles can already reach any city in the United States, and the silo fields in the northwestern Xinjiang region and Gansu province are the core of China’s nuclear forces. China says it has a minimal but credible nuclear deterrent based on the capacity to retaliate if it is struck first, and the People’s Liberation Army can also fire nuclear weapons from submarines and aircraft.
Xi Jinping And Taiwan
This month, Xi Jinping warned Donald Trump that mishandling of their countries’ disagreements over Taiwan could lead them to a “dangerous place.” Some senior Western diplomats and analysts say China could possibly resort to nuclear coercion to limit outside involvement in a conflict over Taiwan, a view that adds friction to the scale of the buildout near Hami.
The satellite images place the expansion in open desert rather than at a single isolated base, with more than 80 launch pads and two concrete pads singled out in the available facts. That leaves the reader with a clearer picture of what China is building around Hami, and with one immediate question: how much further the network will spread beyond the silo fields.
