Chinese Theater Missile Systems
From Japan’s perspective, the DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile and the DF-21D antiship ballistic missile could pose direct threats. China has enough of these projectiles to potentially overwhelm Japan’s missile defense system with so-called “saturation attacks.” As a result, in a military standoff between Japan and China, most US forces would probably clear out of Japan temporarily.
Chinese ballistic missiles may have as many as three different designations. Missiles in service in China would have a DF [Dong Feng = East Wind] designator, while there is a separate alpha-numeric designator for missiles destined for export. The US intelligence community also assigns a CSS [China Surface to Surface] designator.
According to the Chinse principle of naming weapons, the model name of the weapon is named according to the following rules: Weapon Type - Weapon Serial Number - Weapon Development Serial Number. Dongfeng-21D, the type of weapon: Dongfeng, for the Second Artillery Weapon System, generally referred to as the East, 21 is the 21st, usually the Second Artillery 2X default for the long-range missiles, 3X for the long-range or intercontinental missiles, 4X for intercontinental missile. The last letter D said the fourth development model, D-type, that is, Ding type.
China’s Rocket Force | |||
---|---|---|---|
System | Launchers | Missiles | Estimated Range |
ICBM | 50-75 | 75-100 | 5,400-13,000+ km |
IRBM | 16-30 | 16-30 | 3,000+ km |
MRBM | 100-125 | 200-300 | 1,500+ km |
SRBM | 250-300 | 1,000-1,200 | 300-1,000 km |
GLCM | 40-55 | 200-300 | 1,500+ km |
SOURCE : 2018 DIA "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China", pg 125 |
PLA Rocket Force inventories are poorly constrained in the open source literature. The 2019 DIA "China Military Power" reported "The PLARF has about 1,200 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs).... China currently has 75 to 100 ICBMs..." The report discussed various medium and intermendiate range missile programs, but did not provide inventory estimates.
Overview | |||||||
Chinese Designations | Western Designations | Fuel | Range [km] | IOC | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Short Range - up to 1000 km | |||||||
SS-1A SCUNNER | |||||||
1060 | SS-1B SCUD | ||||||
DF- 1 | 1059 | SS-2 SIBLING | |||||
DF-7 | M-7 / 8610 | CSS-8 | Solid/Liquid | 150-180 | |||
DF-11, 11A | M-11 | CSS-7 Mod 1 | Solid | 300 | 1995 | ||
CSS-7 Mod 2 | Solid | 600 | |||||
DF-12 | M-20 | CSS-X-15 | Solid | 280-400 | |||
DF-15 | M-9 | CSS-6 Mod 1 | Solid | 600 | 1995 | ||
CSS-6 Mod 2 | Solid | 850+ | |||||
CSS-6 Mod 3 | Solid | 725+ | |||||
DF-16 | CSS-11 Mod 1 | Solid | 800+ | ||||
CSS-9 Mod 1 | Solid | 150 | |||||
CSS-9 Mod-X-2 | Solid | 260 | |||||
CSS-14 Mod-X-1 | Solid | 150 | |||||
CSS-14 Mod-X-2 | Solid | 280 | |||||
CSS-X-16 | Solid | 200 | |||||
WM-80 | 80-120 | ||||||
B-611/P-12/BP-12 | 150-250 | ||||||
SY-400/-400 mod | 150-400 | ||||||
Wei Shi-2/-3 | 200 | ||||||
Medium Range - 1,000-3,000 km | |||||||
CH-10 | DH-10 | 1,500 | 2006 | ||||
CJ-20 | 2,000 | 201x ? | |||||
DF-100 | 1,500 | 2019? | |||||
DF- 2 | CSS-1 | 1,250 | 1966 | ||||
DF-21 | CSS-5 Mod 1 | Solid | 1,750+ | 1986 | |||
CSS-5 Mod 2 | Solid | 1,750+ | |||||
DF-21C | CSS-5 Con | Solid | 1,750+ | ||||
DF-21D | WU-14 | CSS-5 ASBM | Solid | 1,500+ | |||
DF-25 | 1,700 | cancelled | |||||
DF-61 | 1,000 | cancelled | |||||
M-18 | 1,000 | ||||||
DF-ZF | WU-14 | CSS-5 ASBM | Solid | 1,500+ | |||
DF-17 | DF-ZF | Hypersonic BGV | Solid | 2,500 | |||
Xingkong-2 | Starry Sky 2 | Scramjet? | ?,000 | ||||
Intermediate Range - 3,000-4,800 km | |||||||
DF-3A | CSS-2 | Liquid | 3,000 | 1971 | |||
DF-4 | CSS-3 | 4,750 | 1980 | ||||
DF-26 | solid | 4,000 | 201? |
Inventory - Missiles | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 Jan | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
Short Range | 225 | 275 | 350 | 425 | 500 | 690 | 750 | 1035 | 1100 | 1200 | 1300 | ||
DF-7 | M-7 | CSS-8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 50 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
DF-11 | M-11 | CSS-7 | 100 | 125 | 175 | 200 | 225 | 440 | 455 | 695 | 725 | 800 | 875 |
DF-15 | M-9 | CSS-6 | 125 | 150 | 175 | 200 | 225 | 250 | 295 | 340 | 375 | 400 | 425 |
Medium / Long Range | 108 | 108 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 250 | 350 | 500 | 600 | ||
DF- 3A | CSS-2 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 20 | |
DF- 4 | CSS-3 | 20 | 20 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 22 | 22 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | |
DF-21 | CSS-5 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 21 | 35 | 45 | 70 | 85 | 100 | |
DH-10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | some | 150 | 250 | 350 | 450 |
Inventory - Launchers | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IISS | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |||
Short Range | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 213 | .. | |||
DF-7 | M-7 | CSS-8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
DF-11 | M-11 | CSS-7 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 108 | .. | |
DF-15 | M-9 | CSS-6 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 81 | .. | |
DF-16 | CSS-3 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 24 | .. | ||
Medium / Long Range | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 218 | .. | |||
DF- 3A | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | - | .. | |||
DF- 4 | CSS-3 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | - | .. | ||
DF-21 | CSS-5 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 134 | .. | ||
DF-26 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 30 | .. | |||
CJ-10 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 54 | .. |





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