China may have more nuclear warheads for Dongfeng-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles than the US for Minuteman III

The United States military is concerned that the Chinese army may have more nuclear warheads for

intercontinental ballistic missiles than the US.

What is known

The US nuclear arsenal is overseenStrategic Command. The service claims that the United States has lost numerical superiority over the PRC in some parts of the ballistic missile program.

Strategic Command is required to notifyThe Pentagon if China has more ICBMs, launchers, or nuclear warheads than the United States. The service sent a classified notice to Congress that most likely indicates that China was able to install more nuclear warheads on its missiles than the United States.

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This was stated by Jeffrey Lewis,Program Manager for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in East Asia. He is sure that it was the third condition that was not met. China is actively increasing the number of nuclear warheads, and if the current pace continues, their number will increase to 1,500 by the middle of the next decade.

According to the US military, currentlyChina has three hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles and has the same number of launchers. In this regard, the United States has an advantage - 400 missiles and 450 launchers.

However, there is an important nuance.It consists in the fact that the American Minuteman III missile is capable of carrying only one nuclear warhead. At the same time, the Chinese managed to equip their Dongfeng-41 intercontinental missiles with "multiple" warheads. Jeffrey Lewis notes that in this case, 300 Dongfeng-41s can easily carry more than four hundred nuclear warheads. Although if each side launches 300 missiles in the event of a conflict, then China's slight superiority is unlikely to play any role.

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The US Congress does not comment on this information.However, one of the representatives of the legislature said that the US authorities should work out the issues of secrecy and inform the public about the growing Chinese threat.