Monday, January 7, 2013

A Major U.S. Intelligence Failure On Estimating China's Total Number Of Nuclear Weapons?

The U.S. military must consider both conventional and nuclear capabilities to “neutralize” China’s underground nuclear weapons storage facilities, according to a Pentagon authorization signed into law.

New U.S. Law Seeks Answers On Chinese Nuke Tunnels -- Defense News

TAIPEI — The U.S. military must consider both conventional and nuclear capabilities to “neutralize” China’s underground nuclear weapons storage facilities, according to a Pentagon authorization signed into law.

The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed by U.S. President Barack Obama on Jan. 2, orders the Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to submit a report by Aug. 15 on the “underground tunnel network used by the People’s Republic of China with respect to the capability of the United States to use conventional and nuclear forces to neutralize such tunnels and what is stored within such tunnels.”

Read more ....

My Comment: The part of this report that caught my eye was the following ....

.... The 2011 report, “Strategic Implications of China’s Underground Great Wall,” concluded that the number of nuclear weapons estimated by U.S. intelligence was incorrect. His team estimated that as many as 3,000 nuclear weapons could be hidden within a vast labyrinth in several locations in China. U.S. intelligence estimates have been reporting consistently that China had, at the most, 300 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.

Recent reports from Russia also paints a different picture .... projecting a stockpile of almost 1,000 nuclear warheads .... and not 300.

If this is true .... this is a major U.S. intelligence failure.

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