On April 23, 2021, the South China Sea Fleet of the Chinese Communist Navy received three types of main warships for induction at one time, and sources said that one of the strategic missile nuclear submarines is equipped with the Communist Party’s longest-range submarine-launched ballistic missile to date. Pictured here is the Chinese Communist Party’s Type 094 strategic nuclear submarine. (Mark Schiefelbein/AFP)
On April 23, the South China Sea Fleet of the Chinese Communist Navy received three main warships for induction at once, and sources said that one of them, a strategic missile nuclear submarine, was equipped with the Communist Party’s longest-range submarine-launched ballistic missile to date. A month ago, U.S. experts on nuclear weapons proliferation warned that the Chinese Communist authorities’ push to develop fuel for a new generation of nuclear power reactors would produce large quantities of material that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
Admiral Charles Richard, commander of USSTRATCOM, warned at a congressional hearing on April 20 that the Chinese Communist Party is a major strategic threat to the United States, particularly because of the rapid modernization of its military and the unprecedented expansion of its nuclear capabilities. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced April 28 that it approved the first phase of a design for key components of a nuclear arsenal initially estimated at $4 billion.
Sources: New Chinese Navy Nuclear Submarine Missile Can Reach Entire U.S. Territory
On April 23, 2021, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Navy, CPC General Secretary and Military Commission Chairman Xi Jinping attended the handover and installation ceremony of three new major warships in the South China Sea Fleet. The three ships officially inducted into the Chinese navy are a strategic missile nuclear submarine (the Long March 18 boat with the number 421), a large missile destroyer and an amphibious assault ship, according to official Chinese media.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported on May 1 that according to military sources and analysts, the newly delivered nuclear-powered submarines are equipped with the Communist Party’s most powerful submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) capable of striking the U.S. mainland. Earlier, official Chinese media revealed that the new strategic missile nuclear submarine recently received by the South Sea Fleet is China’s latest 094A modified strategic nuclear submarine.
A source close to the Chinese Communist Navy said the 094A modified strategic nuclear submarine is capable of launching a Jurong-3 (JL-3) submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).
Compared to its predecessor, the 094A, the 094A modified strategic nuclear submarine “has overcome one of the key problems – noise – to enable it to carry the more powerful JL-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile,” the source said.
The source further said that the 094A with the Chiron-3 would have a strike range “capable of covering the entire American continent.
Previously, Chinese nuclear submarines have reportedly been plagued by problems such as excessive noise and ease of detection.
The Voice of America reports that observers have noted that the Chinese Communist Navy does not usually announce the name or number of its nuclear submarines when they enter service, and the news media generally do not report on them publicly. The media’s announcement of the names and numbers on the 72nd anniversary of the Communist Navy’s founding indicates a bold step toward strengthening its control over disputed Asian waters and a new challenge to the United States’ increased influence in the region.
An earlier Voice of America report quoted analysts as saying that the Chinese Communist Party eventually hopes to “break through” the first island chain, and that increasing naval power is one way to do so.
CCP’s Nuclear Power Program Will Generate Large Quantities of Nuclear Weapons Material
Previously, on March 25, 2021, Reuters reported that U.S. experts on nuclear proliferation said that the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to promote fuel development for a new generation of nuclear power reactors would generate large amounts of material that could be used to build nuclear weapons.
The report said the Communist Party is working to develop advanced nuclear reactors and nuclear waste disposal facilities in an effort to reduce its reliance on coal, but that these nuclear waste disposals would also produce plutonium that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
There is no evidence that the Communist Party intends to divert its potential stockpile of plutonium to the development of nuclear weapons, but experts worry that Beijing will dramatically increase the number of its nuclear warheads in the next decade, the report said.
Zhang Hui, a senior fellow at the Harvard University Project, was quoted as saying, “To reduce international concerns about potential plutonium diversion, the CCP needs to keep its nuclear waste recycling program more transparent, including timely reporting of its stockpile of civilian plutonium material, as it did before 2016.”
U.S. Nuclear Security Administration Restarts Nuclear Weapons Program
On April 28, 2021, the U.S. Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees U.S. nuclear research and bomb manufacturing, said in a statement that it approved the first phase of a design package for a number of key components for a nuclear arsenal as part of an ongoing nuclear weapons program that was initially estimated at $4 billion.
The agency did not clarify how the money would be spent or whether the project would include the cost of producing 30 plutonium nuclear fuel cores (a type of nuclear bomb detonator) per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory, but said it would set the cost and schedule baselines for the project in 2023. And to ensure the accuracy of the estimate and schedule, the agency will keep the project under review.
According to the Associated Press, several U.S. administrations, not just the Biden administration, have pushed ahead with the plan to continue producing nuclear triggers. Supporters of the program argue that the U.S. needs to ensure the stability and reliability of its nuclear arsenal in light of growing global security concerns. The U.S. Security Administration has also said that most of the nuclear fuel cores currently in inventory were produced mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.
The U.S. Los Alamos Laboratory, located in Los Alamos, Mexico, is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and is the world’s largest scientific and technical research facility, founded during World War II. The lab was originally part of the Manhattan Project, the first Allied nuclear weapons development program.
U.S. Strategic Commander: Major Strategic Threat as Communist China’s Nuclear Expansion Grows Rapidly
On April 20, 2021, U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Commander Admiral Charles Richard told a congressional hearing that the Chinese Communist Party is a major strategic threat to the United States, particularly because of the rapid modernization of its military and the unprecedented rate of expansion of its nuclear capabilities. He said frankly that the United States can no longer assume that the risk of failure of strategic deterrence in a conflict remains low. Indeed, the CCP’s recent actions in the South China Sea underscore that the CCP is acting with diversity and ignoring international rules and U.S. deterrence.
In his prepared written report, Richard makes clear that the long-term goal of the CCP’s military modernization is to establish regional hegemony, deter U.S. military projection in the Indo-Pacific region, and replace the United States as a security partner for regional states. And with the CCP’s highly opaque military expansion plans, he is even more concerned that the expansion of the CCP’s nuclear weapons capabilities is making the U.S. strategic deterrence, also known as nuclear deterrence, a challenge.
I have no choice but to view the CCP as a major strategic threat to the United States,” Richard said. The Chinese Communist Party already has the capability to implement a nuclear employment strategy in the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to have a transcontinental nuclear employment capability soon. Combined with Russia, this is the first time in U.S. history that the United States has faced two nuclear-capable adversaries at the same time that are on par with the United States.”
The United States, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, also extended the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the U.S. and Russia for five years after President Joe Biden’s administration took office.
Richard admits that with zero increase in U.S. nuclear weapons and watching the Chinese Communist Party’s nuclear capabilities expand at an “unprecedented” rate, he desperately needs continued Congressional budgetary support for, for example, U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile systems to maintain the current U.S. advantage.
Just how fast is the Chinese Communist Party modernizing its military? Richard was unable to give specific figures at the public hearing on the number of nuclear warheads, for example, and was only able to brief lawmakers behind closed doors. But he described the intelligence on the threat of Chinese Communist military power as not just being reported weekly, and needing to be updated monthly, “because the intelligence reported last month would have been out of date.”
Two months ago, Richard wrote an article in the February 2021 issue of Proceedings, the journal of the Naval Academy, warning about the development of nuclear weapons in the Chinese Communist Party and Russia. He said there is a real possibility of a nuclear war between the United States and China and Russia, accusing Moscow and the Communist Party of challenging world peace and Russia and China of being aggressive in ways “unheard of since the Cold War.”
According to Admiral Richard, the U.S. military needs to take a number of actions to prepare strategically, including rethinking how it assesses strategic risks and how it procures weapons systems and other capabilities to maintain U.S. strategic advantage.
Strategic Command is one of the U.S. military’s joint warfare commands, responsible for space warfare, information warfare, defensive missile systems, intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance, global strike, strategic deterrence, weapons of mass destruction and other areas.
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