"Attacking the United States with multiple independent warheads: the effects of intercontinental ballistic missiles". The 32 page of the magazine deserves special attention Naval & Merchant Ships, very read in China. An unusual article for the monthly, considering a hypothetical nuclear attack strategy against the US.
The goals of a hypothetical attack, according to the author, would certainly be the largest cities on the east and west coasts, as well as those in the Midwest. According to some graphs that accompany the analysis, the first strike would produce 50 millions of victims.
"The optimal aiming point would be a blow on New York City. The shock wave would erase Manhattan ". A detail, however, deserves special attention. To hit the US, the author foresees the use of first-generation systems, the DF-5, considered obsolete by the West. If this were the case, Beijing would have rewritten the new nuclear strategy for the first strike, from "assured retaliation" (with latest-generation systems such as the DF-31 and JL-2) to "completely insured retaliation".
Probably, the text was written to panic the Pentagon's analysis. In fact, the DF-41 is mentioned again. According to the data (never confirmed) obtained from the USA, the DF-41 would be able to carry up to ten maneuverable multi-rebar maneuver heads independent of 250 kilotons at fourteen thousand kilometers away.
From Naval & Merchant Ships confirm that the military carried out four tests, with the last that would have demonstrated the MIRV technology (Chinese, Russians and the Americans themselves are careful not to mention the MARV warheads, but in fact they are already operational).
"The DF-41 could easily hit all targets in the United States (except Florida)".
Although the military is pushing for a first line of fire based on several warheads, in China it continues to pursue the idea of a precision "SEE" or "small, elite and effective" nuclear force. Being a medium-sized nuclear power, the current concept of Chinese redundancy should be based on three strategic submarines still navigating to cover possible targets.
The deepening on Naval & Merchant Ships concludes with a focus on tactical nuclear weapons. It is clear that Beijing wants to develop systems based on scalar power given by the "dial-a-yield" doctrine.
