China tests multiple warhead missle, increases nuclear threat to U.S.

BEIJING (Christian Examiner) -- U.S. defense officials claimed last week that China has conducted a long-range flight test of a missile that could reach anywhere in the United States.

According to Investor's Business Daily, China's Dec. 13 test marks the third time the country tested the DF-41 weapon. However, it is the first test of a multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV), an advanced nuclear missile with the ability to carry multiple warheads and ups the ante on China's threat to the U.S.

The IBD revealed a statement from a report produced for Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission claiming "The DF-4, which could be deployed as early as 2015, may carry up to 10 MIRVs, and have a range as far as 7,456 miles, allowing it to target the entire continental United States."

"China could use MIRVs to deliver nuclear warheads on major U.S. cities and military facilities as a means of overwhelming (existing) U.S. ballistic missile defenses," the report added.

China's multiple warhead weapons were developed using both illegal transfers of technology and information given to the nation during the Clinton's administration.

The IBD detailed information from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) dated back to Dec. 10, 1996, calling China's MIRV technology an offshoot of a "smart dispenser" for launching multiple satellites. The report indicated the dispenser was developed by China for Motorola to launch the company's Iridium communications satellites.

Now developed, the nuclear threat to the U.S. will become increasingly lethal, IHS Jane's 360 reported.

In an interview with The Blaze, Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, said the advancement in China's nuclear technology could not be ignored.

"China has the doctrine, the appreciation of our vulnerabilities and increasingly the means to conduct electromagnetic pulse attacks against the United States," he said. "As it improves the range and lethality of its ballistic missile forces, that threat will only grow. We ignore it, and continue to leave ourselves vulnerable to such a nation-ending danger, at our extreme peril."