CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Russian and North Korean leaders Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, respectively, joined Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the Tiananmen Square rostrum in Beijing on Sept. 3 to witness a parade vaunting China’s military might.
Among the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military kit rolling along Chang’an Avenue will be a host of new weapon systems, including ballistic, cruise, anti-ship and air defense missiles.
The parade will ostensibly celebrate “the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” according to China.
With several parade rehearsals having taken place already, numerous new missiles to be unveiled in the parade have been spotted. Among them are the DF-26D and HQ-29.
After its unveiling in 2015, the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile was christened the “Guam killer” since it has sufficient range to reach the U.S. island territory from China.
The Pentagon’s most recent China military power report noted: “The multirole DF-26 is designed to rapidly swap conventional and nuclear warheads, and is capable of conducting precision land attack and anti-ship strikes in the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea from mainland China.”
The report estimated the PLA owns 250 launchers and 500 missiles already.
Few analysts were expecting a DF-26D variant, and it is still unclear what enhancements the new missile possesses. Some speculate it might incorporate active radar seekers or decoys to defeat missile defense systems.
Whatever its improvements are, the DF-26 will continue to threaten all US bases in the Western Pacific.
As for the HQ-29 air defense system, some commentators are describing it as a high-end anti-ballistic missile with potential applications in anti-satellite missions. Two HQ-29 missiles are carried on each 12×12 launcher vehicle.
Rick Joe, an analyst of the Chinese military, said the HQ-29 is being compared to the equivalent of a kinetic-energy interceptor for midcourse ballistic missile defense.
In that logic, the road-mobile HQ-29 system enhances China’s layered defenses against incoming ballistic missiles in their midcourse flight phases outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
If the HQ-29 can target orbiting satellites, it will strengthen China’s counter-space capabilities.
The U.S. Space Force warned in April that “China is the pacing challenge and is rapidly improving its space capabilities to track and target U.S. military forces.”
It further noted China is pursuing a wide range of counter-space capabilities to disrupt and degrade U.S. space capabilities.
Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.
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