China Increases Production of ‘Guam Killer’ Ballistic Missiles

China is increasing its number of road-mobile DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles (irbm) capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads, according to a nuclear challenges report from the Defense Intelligence Agency released on October 23.

These missiles are nicknamed “Guam Killers” because of their ability to attack American forces on the Western Pacific island.

Nuclear capable: Considered China’s “first-ever precision-strike capability,” the DF-26 irbms can be loaded with nuclear or conventional warheads, a feature that is “unique among China’s nuclear-capable systems,” the report states.

This means the systems “can conduct both conventional and nuclear precision strikes against ground targets as well as conventional strikes against naval targets.”

Production: The report also identifies three new missile fields China has developed along its border with Mongolia. State media claim these installations are turbine farms.

In 2020, the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that China had a little over 200 warheads in its arsenal. It now has over 500 and is expected to have more than 1,000 by 2030.

China is undergoing the most rapid expansion and ambitious modernization of its nuclear forces in history—almost certainly driven by an aim for enduring strategic competition with the U.S. and a goal to actualize intensified strategic concepts that have existed for decades but are now being realized.
—Defense Intelligence Agency

Nuclear proliferation: In our October issue, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote about the dangers of Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and his expanding nuclear stockpile.

“Nukes in the hand of this man are a ticking time bomb!” Mr. Flurry wrote. But he explained, Xi “isn’t even the greatest danger to world peace.” Madmen with nuclear launch buttons at their fingertips is humanity’s gravest problem.

Learn more: Read Mr. Flurry’s article “Nuclear Proliferation: Will Humanity Survive?”