ABSTRACT
When examining the potential threats posed to India by the Chinese and Pakistani nuclear arsenals, it is imperative to recognise that a potential threat needs to be differentiated from an imminent threat. China’s extensive variety of cruise missiles also provides for a potential source of air, land and sea-launched nuclear weapons. It is estimated that China has approximately 260 nuclear warheads in its stockpile for delivery by approximately 160 land-based ballistic missiles as well as aircraft and has pushed towards deploying a ballistic submarine fleet. In 2015, the Chinese Second Artillery—which controls its land-based missile force—took an important step towards the modernisation of its land-based ballistic missile force when it began equipping a proportion of the country’s silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles. Second Artillery has approximately 160 nuclear-capable land-based missiles of seven types, half of which are short-range and medium-range with the number of long-range missiles increasing slowly.
