Pentagon has warned that China with its most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world has fastest-growing fleet of ballistic and cruise missiles capable of hitting the US from Chinese waters.
According to the Washington Times, Beijing's new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the JL-2, will for the first time enable Chinese submarines to strike parts of the US from China's coastal waters.
The Department of Defense's National Air and Space Intelligence Center in its report said that the number of Chinese ICBM nuclear warheads capable of reaching the US could expand to well over 100 within the next 15 years.
Rep. Michael R. Turner said that the Obama administration has allowed US missile defense program to languish when the administration should have been working to prepare for these imminent threats.
The report said that China is rapidly expanding its conventional missile forces, especially those designed to 'prevent adversary military forces' access to regional conflicts'.
It further added that China is developing countermeasures to missile defense, such as multiple independent re-entry vehicles, or MIRVs, which if deployed in an ICBM makes the missile much harder to intercept.
